Large amount of coverage in the Sidmouth Herald this week, much of it criticising the number of traders on the Esplanade and crowding out acoustic musicians and other amateur performers. Includes a letter from Derek Schofield. The newspaper website these days doesn't seem to include letters so I've reproduced them, together with a couple of articles.

My own (draft) coverage of the festival starts at many and varied tickets!

the articles and letters start here Article criticising the number of traders on the seafront in 2015

People I have spoken to locally agreed things got out of hand this year - the more letters that are written to the Herald the better! try to keep within 250 words - difficult I know!

You can submit letters online via the Sidmouth Herald website - with an address and phone number or they likely will not get used. Or use this email address:

sidmouth.letters@archant.co.uk

If anyone has a couple of photos of the excessive trader activity on the seafront that I could use, please let me have them. I didn't take any photos myself this year.