Steve Harris wrote:

"The replacement hall for Sidmouth College is a dreary place"

Please name it. Thanks

I can do better than that with my new (secondhand) £10 digital camera! Watch this space. Just off to town now. Sunshine too!!!

I really don't know why some people here are so negative about the Ham - the only reason I have much faith in a big festival happening this year is that Gordon Newton has committed himself to the Ham and he has the money and experience to back up his promises. Best of luck to him too. If he makes money he will give it to the 2006 festival. If he loses money he will stand the loss himself.

He has also financed the superb glossy leaflets (copy of the latest one will be on my website later today). Without him I doubt much would happen - a personal view but one shared by other people in the town. Lack of up-front money has been a huge problem for the other organisers - as discussed at the last town meeting.

As for the fawning attitude of some organisers towards Sidmouth Town Council, it just shows how frightened they are of getting on the wrong side of certain people. Look how much grief Steve Heap had to suffer from petty minded nonentities.

The principal practical concern I have about the Ham (and the festival in general) is whether sufficient volunteer stewards will turn up and stay the course. If the Ham is used as Gordon suggests for concerts and dancing (he said he would give it free to anyone who wanted to use it outside of his concert slots) , then several times a day all the chairs (which have to be bolted together and to the floor for fire safety reasons) will have to be removed, then put back again, then checked and re-certified. Up to 900 chairs, several times a day???