The 2017 thread is now up.A few comments on my part on some of the proposed locations:
ScandinaviaI agree with the other posters - the scenery is nice and the major airports there are at an acceptable distance.
ItalyI might be a bit biased here
but I agree with Mav. If Italy is chosen, I'm willing to man a major airport (LIML/LIMC/LIRF) or my home base, LIPX (
shameless plug which is also quite near to another major ATC hub, EDDF, and offers some interesting approaches). Mav could be at Aviano AF, and I might ask other people on the Italian FlightGear community forum to gauge their interest.
Non-European locationsI have never flown there in FG so I can't comment much, however India and Central America might be good candidates. I would not choose South-East Asia right now, as we have already had a Festival there (in Japan).
ManpowerI agree with Catalanoic on the fact that manpower should be an important factor to be taken into consideration. During this last Festival edition, I (unfortunately) had much less time to contribute than expected due to some freelance work I've been doing (instead of just one month, it took three/four months and 12/14 hours per day, as some parts had to be redone/improved - no wonder I had a burnout episode). For now, I can't make any promises, but I expect to be able to state my commitments in a few weeks (I've already received a few job offers, so, apart from some extra hours when project releases get near, they should be "ordinary" 8:30-AM-to-6-PM jobs); it will probably be OpenRadar files (plus, maybe, procedure files) as I'm going to complete my LIPX project and, then, to focus on core development, where more manpower is needed.