It was quiet and lacking in atmosphere in general. I was actually quite distressed to find out that the bands in the Anchor are sponsored by the festival, I had always imagined the pub paid them. What this means, as anyone who went in would know, was that the Middle Bar Singers were having to compete with heavily amplified noise from the gardens, often not even bloody folk noise, one night it appeared to be Shit Songs from the 70's Night. Surely there are other places more appropriate for that crap?

Now, I'm not stupid, I know the Anchor makes lots more money from the garden stuff and perhaps the festival gets a cut, I don't know? I do know that the singers, who, let's face it chaps, have been keeping the tradition of unaccompanied singing alive for 30 odd years in that pub are a disregarded and disrespected minority, which seems so against what I thought the Spirit of Folk and Folk Festivals WAS all about.