What a bizarre place Butlins is - stick in the 1970's - it even has its own institutional smell which taints everything.

Some great music though - new discoveries for me Joe O'Donnell (incredible fiddle player with superb band), Jane Taylor (powerful blues voice and another great band) and Alessandro and the Magic Tombolinos (high energy Balkan sax player and yet another excellent line up). For the first time I 'got' Seth Lakeman - not sure if he has changed or I have - a brilliantly tight ensemble. Chumbs were great as always, Peatbog Faeries mainly tedious but things picked up towards the end and Steve Gibbons was the worst hour I have had in a concert for as long as I can remember. Cara Dillon was the absolute highlight - enjoyed her even more than at Shrewsbury.

Was thinking of going back next year if line up was good but people started queuing over an hour before the gigs which meant you had to join the queue not too long afterwards to be sure to get a seat. An hour of standing next to slot machines is not a great experience!

Also, as already commented, they need to get their sound checking sorted - sometimes the sound was very good but at other times eg Kanda Bongo Man it was dreadful. Some of the artists were obviously having a lot of problems with the sound. Perhaps those who had great sound had their own engineers?