Two things need to be in place for effective advertising: media coverage/promotion prior to the event and the series being on the air. There is simply too many entities look for free publicity for editors or radio station managers to give away free publicity for a product that isn't even relevant for most people. DS isn't on the air. It is difficult to say the 40th Anniversary of a TV show is a big deal when the thing isn't on the air anywhere. All festivals that have had huge turnouts (4-6 thousand people) occurred when the series was on the air and the actors were invited to do interviews on radio and TV prior to the event, many times just a day or two prior to the event itself. At the fests where there was plenty of pre-fest promotion, the local media came out to cover the story too.
That has not happened in awhile. The reality is that DS is not relevant to the general public because it is not easily available or seen on TV anywhere. You have to make the effort to go looking for it in order to be a part of it. No causal turning of the TV Channel and coming upon it, there isn't the chance look at a TV Guide for a brief description and either remembering the show or wanting to take a look because it sounds intriguing.
And remember too that if the show is off the air, many fans simply lose interest. There is always the hard core fans who watch videos or DVDs, regularly participate on boards such as this one, post on lists but for the most part, attendance drops on lists and boards when DS is not on the air. Attendance drops at the festivals.
The 40th anniversary had something like 1200 people and that's been one of the lowest turnouts since the series went off SciFi. Even though the festival is non-profit, it still has to make enough money to break even and not lose money. It has to remain solvent and flying actors from one coast to another, paying their expenses, and the rest of it is expensive. Fans like the ones who are here and elsewhere actively participating in DS fandom are the stem that will keep the flower blooming but even non profit entities have to follow common business sense.
It's amazing to me that the fests have continued given these realities in whatever capacity. I was shocked at how low the attendance at the 40th I guess only because I had expected more to come to celebrate that landmark but in hindsight it was silly of me to have expected it given the things I pointed out above.
As there has not been any announcement about an upcoming fest, it is fair to assume that either something else is in the works or there is a struggle behind the scenes to figure out what to do so there isn't any going into a hole financially. The festivals are a part of the publicity arm of DCP and if there is nothing to publicize, it doesn;t make much sense to have them at all. However, I think some smaller scale event could happen. We'll see.
All my opinion of course.
Nancy
