Just one comment about singers who leave a SAR after their spot. If the SAR is a very big one, it might several hours before your turn comes round. If you're at a festival, there may be other events which you want to get to, or even the fact that you need to eat sometime ! There have been many occasions when I've stayed much longer at a SAR than I'd planned, but when you know that it's your turn in the next 15mins or so, you do tend to stay for it. After you've sung, however, you then feel free to carry on with what ever else is on the agenda. Would it be better to leave without singing then ?

On the other hand at Tenterden Folk Festival last year, Linda and I were at John Barden's SAR from about 11.45am to 12.30am the next morning - minus a couple of hours in the early evening when we had a meal break. As various festival guests were performing upstairs in the pub, we were prevailing upon people like Dave Webber & Annie Fentiman to sing us a couple of songs as they passed through, I didn't hear anyone complaining about this - especially as most of the guest performers tended to sing songs with great choruses for us to join in with.

One of the gripes that Linda and I have about some festival SARs is that they are scheduled to finish at a fixed time (lunchtime ones always seem to end at 3pm) when there are often many people who still haven't managed to sing and plenty more who are looking to sing another time. Unless the premises are needed for another event or the landlord wants the session to end - why not carry on - as we did at the Tenterden session which I've already mentioned.