At last some serious posts!

How I agree with Folkiedave and The Barden of England.

The trouble with Sidmouth now is:

(i) many of the people who attended the International Festival and arena events are now not attending at all, meaning that the Festival overall has far less income to play with

(ii) many of the people who are still attending are mainly interested in the sessions in pubs and on the prom, meaning there's less people buying tickets for the main concerts and dances, and

(iii) the council have cut their grant from £60,000 to zero and, let's be honest, many of the locals would rather we weren't there... they take our money but don't really welcome our presence in their quiet and backward town.

There's still enough happening to persuade me back one more year. Like The Barden of England I try to support those who work so hard to make festivals happen. I want the Folk Week to continue but when anything enters a spiral of decline it can be awfully hard to reverse the trend... and Sidmouth has an awful lot of competition from other festivals now.

John (Boatman) - The Singer