Well said Laura and GUEST who would rather remain nameless (as indeed do I).

One point to GUEST. He or she is half right in saying Mrs Casey withdrew because of the financial risk if the weather is poor.

Speak to Steve Heap and Mrs Casey as I have done and you will also find they withdrew because they were being messed-around by East devon District Council who were making impossible demands on site issues, staffing issues, licensing issues and insurance issues.

Those issues will surely still have to be faced by whoever attempts to stage events in 2005. As the financial situation will be even worse without the £60,000 Council funds then surely even those of us who want Sidmouth to continue have to ask whether all the heady optimism from Lizzie & Co. will be enough to overcome the real and practical difficulties in staging events without Council funding and with a whole load of expensive licensing demands to fulfill.

Sorry to be a tad negative but "them's me views".