Frank,

I would bet my house that the other 60 or so festivals that give so much pleasure to thousands don't get asked the "fair question" of "have you got your house in order". We simply trust them to do so, we book our tickets, and if something is not to our expectation we can then complain or make our feelings public. But meanwhile we let them get on with organising their festivals.

The sole exception to this is Sidmouth 2005. Why? (Now, THAT's a fair question - you may care to answer it). The "allegations" you refer to are just that. If you feel the need to reassure yourself you can ask the question of the organisers, not in a public forum; because you'd want an authoritative answer, not the variety of opinions and bits of info you get from a public forum. That's what one would do for any festival. Yet nobody is asking the question for the other festivals, just for Sidmouth.

Hardly surprising therefore that even asking such a question publicly - fair or not - is seen to indicate an unnecessarily aggressive attitude towards the Sidmouth 2005 organisers, and only helps to cast aspersions regarding their ability to organise the festival.

I suggest everyone does as Blowzabella suggetss, and leave the organising to organisers. What was that about too many cooks and the broth?