Played three out of last six years with band. As said earlier, the pay is good at double the usual, but a big undertaking. Stressful trying to please everybody as slow stuff pleases older crowd while young ones sit. Crank up tempo and young tables come alive while old folks have coffee and struggle to stay awake till midnight. Not so different from other gigs in that respect but it's a night you want to make every song work for everybody.
As also said, slow ticket sales at usual places force higher ticket prices following year which makes for slower ticket sales until it doesn't pay for venues to put event on. I share another previous observation that its just not a big deal as it was for the generation of our parents or us..
And not that you have to drink (but lets face it, it's common on this a party night), paying $100 a ticket to party but only having two drinks in fear of driving through a dui checkpoint is not worth it. Safer to stay home, and worry about your kids out there..