For anyone who joined us in the annual pilgrimage to Atlanta for ProgPower USA this year, you know what a professional, fun, and well run festival promoter Glenn Harveston has put together every year since 2001. The unsung heroes of ProgPower USA are the ones who work behind the scenes backstage, the ProgPower USA crew. The reason the festival has a reputation of being a well-oiled machine is thanks to the men and women who work tirelessly all four days to make sure the festival runs as smoothly as possible.

However, this year, the unthinkable happened, at some point during the four day span of the festival and for the first time in the 17 year history of ProgPower USA, a vital piece of the festival's backline was stolen. The missing piece was a Les Paul guitar valued at $1,800 and with case, shipping and tax, the total loss is $2,279.00.

The dedicated and hard working crew searched tirelessly to no avail and the venue security cameras found nothing. With the understanding that mistakes happen and the crew is only human, Glenn paid the cost of the guitar out of his own pocket. This cost was not in the festival budget, but rather than docking the crew a portion of their hard earned pay, Glenn decided to take the loss and use it as a lesson learned to prevent something like this from ever happening again.

That's why I am reaching out to the ProgPower community. Glenn and Jen have given us all so much over the years with a festival that has become much more than that, we are a metal family and after such an amazing year, when all four days of the festival sold out for the first time in ProgPower history, let's not let the actions of a thief dampen the mood and spirit of OUR festival!

I've spoken directly with Glenn about this and he reluctantly gave me his personal blessing provided the cap on the campaign set to be at the exact amount of the loss. I'm asking to give whatever you can to this crowd funding campaign so Glenn and Jen can recoup this unfortunate loss and remember this year as a huge success and not for one unfortunate moment.