I have a couple of acquaintances who play in metal bands, and from their perspective, CD/download sales and streaming are secondary to touring. At concerts you

I have a couple of acquaintances who play in metal bands, and from their perspective, CD/download sales and streaming are secondary to touring. At concerts you get to engage directly with your fans and build a connection and a rapport that you just can't get from listening to a recording. The very best thing you can do to support your favorite artists is to go to their concerts, and buy a t-shirt or some other merch while you're there. Nearly as supportive is buying downloads and merch through services like Bandcamp, where they majority of the money you pay goes directly to the artists. Just in my little country of less than 6 million people, we have three big annual metal festivals, multi-day affairs with good coverage of both international and local bands. There has also been a marked increase in the number of smaller festivals that specialize in local niche bands with some international bookings, as well. And that's just from the metal scene, my primary sphere of interest. We also have one of the largest and oldest general music festivals in Europe (Roskilde) and countless smaller fests. Accounting for all genres, not a week goes by without at least one festival being held somewhere, in a country where train travel from literally one end to the other takes just ~10 hours. The festival scene has really exploded over the last 10-15 years.