Lizzie - I'm just back from Chippenham - three and a half days for £65 including camping (say £20 per day, all in) except that as a steward I got my ticket for free. But I did have to be on duty for several hours each morning watching other people dance - most distressing. Even worse was not seeing you there. ... I've missed you so much recently. I really have...... The main dances were packed and the evening concerts were usually House Full. Several ATMs ran out of cash so I guess the town did well.

I discussed Sidmouth in detail with several people and told a lot more about it. Everyone who had seen the latest Sidmouth leaflet said the organisers have done a fantastic job but that when you work out the total daily/weekly cost it looks high - you need to pick your events in advance if you are to be sure of getting tickets. Several people wanted to know how big it was planned to be - what is the planned capacity of the Blackmore marquee? And the LNE? We know the Ham is planned for 800+ for concerts. The social dance was planned for up to 300 over 3 venues before the main (largest) of these became unavailable.

I have updated the social dance page on SeeRed http://www.seered.co.uk/folk47.htm to include details of refunds for people who now want to do a mix of social dance and ceilidhs and added bus ticket info. http://www.seered.co.uk/folk51a.htm The Stagecoach leaflet is confusing with no mention of the (separate?) LNE buses and a Gold Rider ticket which appears to do all the special festival week ticket does (and more) for the same price??. Except that you can save a whopping £2 by booking the festival one in advance. Out of interest I tried the enquiry number - it was locked in a hopeless answerphone loop.

As for Sidmouth, everything now depends on how many people calculate the overall daily cost of doing everything they want to do (higher than at most other festivals?) and how many say "sod the expense we are coming to support the Sidmouth organisers" - except that much of the money may not be going to do that anyway! Social Dance tickets are still £90 despite the decreased quality of venue, the Ham season is £135, LNEs are £63, and camping for the week could be £40 - add in a couple of evening ceilidhs and you are up to £350. Little wonder ticket sales are off to a slow start - people need to sit down, study the programme and decide what to buy.

Credit must go to Gordon Newton who has organised the Ham events - if it goes well he might make a profit and he has said he will give this to Sidmouth 2006. If he makes a loss, he will have to find it from his own pocket. Details on http://www.seered.co.uk/folk77.htm   So much else would (I guess) not have been organised at all if he had not come forward to help - and he doesn't even live here. So support the Ham events whatever else you plan to do. And support the locally organised ceilidhs in Blackmore Gardens - every evening from 8 pm.

See you there Lizzie??

By the way, take a look at the latest sidmouth website -
http://www.sidmouthfestivalcrafts.co.uk In past years many craft sales may have been to 'casual day visitors' who were drawn by the 'international' scale of the week. This year, who knows!