Attendance Down All Over

I got a call this morning from a friend who encouraged a local venue to bring a performer in for a concert this coming weekend.  He asked for help in promoting the event because he was embarrased that ticket sales were so slow.  The performer is well know and normally draws a crowd so he questioned what went wrong. 

Let's roll back to last weekend and talk about a conference I attened.  It was the Performing Arts Manager's Conference and the single subject on everybody's mind was the down turn in ticket sales across the board

It's a fact; we are in a recession and people are watching their pennies.  Gas prices are up. 

If we are going to continue to have quality acts available we need to find a way to bring attendance numbers up.  I would like your input.  Are shows just too expenseive?  What is keeping you from going to shows?