Progpower USA is a four-day progressive and power metal festival based in Atlanta, Georgia. 24 years into their run, the festival has established a tradition of bringing great bands from across the world to the US—bands which, in many cases, would make The Progressive Subway staff froth at the mouth simply from hearing their names. This year’s festival will take place at Center Stage in Atlanta from September 3rd to 6th, with a roster including Be’lakor, Rivers of Nihil, Green Carnation, VOLA, and Symphony X, to name but a few. 

Festival co-promoter Milton Mendonça, who’s currently in charge of Day 2 at the festival, sat down with Claire to chat about ProgPower USA, its legacy, and the challenges of bringing international bands to the United States in 2025.

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Hi Milton, thanks for joining us in the underground tunnels of the Progressive Subway for this interview. To start off, in your own words, what is ProgPower USA?

ProgPower USA is a metal festival that takes place once a year in Atlanta here in the USA. It’s something that’s been near and dear to me since 2002. I started attending as a fan back then, and it is probably single-handedly the one event that has kickstarted those two particular genres of music, progressive and power metal, to become more popular and more accessible here in the States. It’s given some artists the first chance to come and play in the States, and now some of these artists come back and tour year after year. It’s a pretty special event.

You mentioned that you started attending the festival as a fan. How did you get involved in your current capacity as a co-promoter?

After 10 years of going as an attendee, I was invited to join the crew. I started working as a music journalist, from that I went into PR, and then I went into booking and management. Through booking some of the bands at ProgPower, I had already established a good relationship with [festival founder and current lead promoter] Glenn Harveston and he said, “Hey, we’re looking for somebody to do the Wednesday show, if you want to take a stab at it.” And I came on board as the Wednesday night promoter, and things progressed, and now I’m the heir apparent as Glenn gets ready to move into retirement.

Looking at the almost 25-year history of the festival, and its legacy up until this point, could you share some of the bands that hadn’t previously toured in the US, that you’re the most proud of having brought to ProgPower?

I can’t speak for the years that I wasn’t a promoter; that’s Glenn’s credit and he deserves all of it. But there’s definitely been some bands that I didn’t think I would ever be able to get in the States at all. Some bands that I was a fan of and never had a chance to work with up until then. The Blind Guardian special set was a pretty solid one. I was always a big fan of Stream of Passion, and I never thought they would come to the States, and we pulled that off. Galneryus was a big deal, bringing them from Japan. And I got to work as a promoter for one of my favorite bands, Angra.

I came with my little cheat sheet of some of the bands that I know are really beloved at the Progressive Subway, that had US debuts or one-off appearances at the festival. Nightwish, Blind Guardian, Green Carnation, Vanden Plas, Seventh Wonder, Orphaned Land, Angra. A lot of really great bands.

Sabaton is another one, Gamma Ray—their first shows in the States. I was still a booking agent at the time, but I also worked with Glenn to facilitate the Pain of Salvation Remedy Lane set, and the Angra Holy Land set. Those are two that I often pat myself on the back for. It’s such a hard question though, right? Because there’s some politics that play into it. I don’t want to forget anybody. I don’t want to get anybody mad at me.

Talking about the festival lineup for this year, we’ve seen a lot of turnover, a lot of bands getting swapped out due to issues with artist visas caused by the current US administration and their policies. Can you describe what has changed and how it has affected the festival?

Visa issues are not anything new. As far back as 2010, the festival lost a bunch of bands due to visas. This year, there were some changes that affected the time that it takes for a visa to be processed at the [US Customs and Immigration Services] office. Some changes were made that pulled people out of those offices, and it caused those processing times to become longer. Before you could have a visa applied for, processed, and approved within two to four months—sometimes a little more, sometimes as fast as a few weeks. Once that change happened in January, we had already applied for most of our visas [for 2025], and the time frame changed to up to 10 months. The only thing you can do in those cases is to pay an exorbitant extra fee to expedite the process. On top of that, there’s been added scrutiny to the visa applications. I would love to say that it’s not a political thing, but it sort of is, right? No matter how much we try to plan for it: we started all of our visa petitions early this year, played by the rules, and still kind of got screwed in the end. And there were a bunch of bands that were not approved, simply because our government didn’t think that they were relevant enough or worthy enough to get a visa. So, yeah, it’s a mess. I don’t know how else I can put it.

I’m curious, you don’t have to name any names, but have you approached any bands from abroad who aren’t interested in even trying to perform on US soil right now given the current situation?

More than ever, we’ve gotten answers like, “I think we’re going to wait a few years.” This year, we had to expedite every visa petition. And it’s not looking like it’s going to change anytime soon. The government’s website just says what the average estimated time is. That doesn’t really mean anything. It costs about $8,000 to do an expedited visa, just to get them permission to enter the country, let alone all of the other expenses. So, a lot of bands are saying, you know what, it’s just not worth it. And we’re a 1,000 cap festival. We can only afford so much. So, I can understand when bands say, “You know what, unless we get paid double of what you’re offering, we can’t make it happen”. And it’s not because we’re trying to be cheap and lowball the bands; we pay very competitive rates. You know, it’s the biggest market for metal bands in the world, and it’s still one of the hardest for the bands to come and break in.

We’ve seen other festivals and artists, whether it’s because of COVID or different issues, try to defray costs with crowdfunding campaigns. I know ProgPower USA also ran a t-shirt campaign to help with costs when the pandemic resulted in delays and unexpected expenses. What do you think about this kind of approach versus across the board ticket price increases?

COVID really did a number on the industry in general. I think the one good thing that came out of it was people’s creativity in terms of finding ways to earn some money—not even to make money, just to keep things afloat. I think it’s really cool when they’re offering something that’s new and different and unique. I think it can become stale very quickly; it can become, “oh, there is another one doing crowdfunding”. Glenn had to do [a crowdfunding campaign] this year for the visa expedites, because the increase was almost three times as much as we had in the budget. We’re very grateful that we have a core audience that’s willing to jump in and help. I think it says a lot about the festival, and I like to believe that we make up to them in terms of the experience that we offer. You cannot count on ticket sales all the time, unfortunately.

The festival always announces the lineup a year in advance. So, for example, when attending the 2024 festival, fans will see [a video announcing] which bands are coming in 2025. What do you think are the merits or challenges with this approach versus other festivals like 70,000 Tons of Metal, which is notorious for being slow to release its lineup?

The biggest challenge has to do with scheduling. A lot of bands just cannot plan ahead that far in advance. There are bands that we’ve been speaking to to bring to the festival for a decade now, and they can never plan so far in advance. We announce it a year in advance, which means we have to start booking no later than 15 months in advance, which means we start thinking about the lineup longer than a year and a half away. Now we’re coming on to the 2025 edition. So, 2026[‘s lineup] is pretty much done. By the end of this year, I would start thinking about the following one, right? 2027. But you never know what’s going to happen. It’s hard, but I feel like we’ve succeeded enough that we have the recipe. We know what to look for when it comes to building a roster that will be relevant that far in advance. We also have a lot of colleagues and contacts; we’re always talking to bands, managers, agents, labels, so we have a good idea of who’s going to be releasing an album around announcement time and so on. But it’s a bit of a dance for sure. It’s challenging. 

I feel like the [lineup announcement video] is almost as exciting as any other band playing the festival. It has become such an important part of what ProgPower is, that I don’t think I could do it any other way. It’s really cool to see all the speculation that goes on in the months leading up to the festival, and then to watch the fans’ reaction to the videos. I think it’s an added bonus that other festivals have definitely gotten their inspiration from.

I think you can even win little prizes under the table if you guess all the bands correctly. 

Yeah, I’ve heard.

Is the viability of the advanced announcements approach changing due to the current situation? Would you ever consider shifting to later or staggered band announcements?

I think it’s still viable. It’s not an excuse, but 100% of the cancellations were never because we did something wrong as an entity, whether we messed something up or didn’t do a contract well enough. It’s always stuff that’s outside of our control, and I feel like our audience for the most part is very understanding of that. I think it’s the only viable way, to be honest with you, because I also have to compete with festivals all over the world, and now you can fly into Europe for like $300. So I have to get a head start on that. 

At The Progressive Subway, our core focus is on underground bands. And in fact, for the first few years that the publication was around, we only covered bands with less than 20,000 monthly listeners on Spotify. When you’re looking for younger or less established bands to bring onto the ProgPower USA roster, what makes a band stand out to you?

It really has to wow me. I’ve been coming to ProgPower since ProgPower III. I’ve seen a lot of bands get booked that everybody gets very excited about. And they’re really solid, but they last a few albums and either they move on or they see that it’s not viable, whatever it might be. And every now and then you find that one band that really just smacks you on your face and you’re like, “Holy crap.” Circus Maximus is an example. Seventh Wonder is an example. And more recently, I feel Nospūn is an example of that as well. It’s just a feeling that I get at this point, but it comes from years of watching the scene very closely, and finding little nuances or details that maybe other people are not thinking about. 

I also think a band could really wow you on their album, but if they’re really unestablished, they might not know how to perform live.

There is a very specific example of a band that played ProgPower. Incredible record. One of those records that remind you why you became a fan, and then they came on stage, and it was just a hot mess. And that is a very good example of what you’re saying. You know, they can wow you on record, but then they can’t play live. That was a big let down, I must say.

The original festival promoter, Glenn Harveston, has announced his intention to retire after the 25th festival next year, and you have been announced as his replacement, which I want to congratulate you for first of all. 

Thank you.

Do you have a mission statement for the future of ProgPower USA? Do you intend to change aspects of the festival, whether for the sake of making it your own or by necessity due to changing circumstances, or do you plan to stick to the model of the first 25 years?

I want to honour the legacy of what made ProgPower special for 25 years. It’s not just about the bands. It’s never been just about the bands. I remember very specifically the first time I went to ProgPower, just looking around and feeling—this is going to sound so cliche—belonging. Like I’m meant to be there, and I just have to come back. “I don’t care what happens next year. I have to be here”. And that was my mentality over the next 10 or so years. There were years that I was completely broke and friends of mine would be like, “You have to come, we’re paying for it”. Over the years, I heard the same kind of feeling from other people. So I think more important than anything is to maintain what ProgPower has been all about, which is this special event [where] you get to see all of these friends that you only see once a year, that also happens to have some really cool bands playing. And as a promoter, of course, it has to keep making money, too. It has to be commercially viable. The only big change I’m going to make is bringing the festival back to three days instead of four. A lot of people say that it’s more expensive for them to take one extra day off and pay an extra night at a hotel and so on. And also, I’ll be running this on my own. I also plan on offering a three-day pass, which is something that we haven’t been able to do, because we’re multiple promoters and we run the nights separately.

When we were preparing for this interview, you told me you probably wouldn’t be able to share any details about next year’s lineup. Of course, that made me want to ask about it. Knowing the core audience of The Progressive Subway, we love these kinds of underground or underappreciated bands that people maybe don’t get to hear from as often. Can you give a little teaser for us?

Next year is going to be very special because it’s Glenn’s last year. So you can expect a lineup that will blow people’s minds. Glenn is very proud of what he does with the festival, and I don’t think anyone should expect him to go out quietly. I’ll not speak to his days and his bands, but I can speak to Day Two. Out of the six bands on Day Two next year, only one will be a festival return. So five other bands have not been there. There will be a band that people will be saying, “Jesus, finally.” There will definitely be a band that people are going to say, “Who?” And a non-conventional headliner. I think ultimately it exemplifies what ProgPower is all about: There’s the progressive bands, there’s the power bands, there are the bands that people have no idea why they’re there, but somehow they work. I’m pretty happy with it.

Now people can go and start making their whiteboards, trying to figure out everything that you said.

Here’s one out of left field. What artist, band, song, album is living rent free in your head right now?

My favorite current band would be Sleep Token. I’m listening to the new Epica album quite a lot as well, and I just got the new Lorna Shore album as well. That has been my playlist. 

Is there anything else that we haven’t touched on about the festival or your role that you want to let people know about?

There are still tickets available for Days One and Two of the festival this year. And plenty of people reselling [tickets for Days Three and Four]. So, if somebody is on the fence about coming to the festival, there’s still ways to do it. And I know I’m biased, but it’s a special event. It’s been a rough year, but everyone’s still excited to attend. I don’t know if it’s a badge of honour, but [we have] the reputation of being able to replace [bands that drop out] at the same level or higher. You tell me. You keep coming back.

I look forward with a lot of optimism to see where the festival is going beyond its 25th year, which is huge. To last 25 years is really quite a legacy.

Like I said, I just hope to be able to keep it going. You know, Glenn got 25 years out of it. I have 10 now as a co-promoter. If I get another 10 or 15, I’m happy. We’ll see. 

Links: Facebook | Instagram | ProgPower USA Website