Ray - can't agree with you. It may not have been to your taste, but as far as I'm concerned the National was exactly what I wanted - song based (mostly), traditional, and with a large number of lectures and workshops centred on traditional music and song (or in Doc Rowe's case customs). There was a good balance available between music and workshop/lectures and sessions - dance doesn't interest me in the slightest (except to listen to the music), and this festival never purported to be a dance based one - for that you go elsewhere. It was also small, intimate, and fun, and what's more comfortable and under cover in one place for most of us(unless you wanted to camp.) No inkling AT ALL of elitism - I'd hardly have continued going if that was the case, and I was hooked on my first visit. In fact I made quite a few friends there - some of whom I haven't seen since the last National as they were from the North or the Midlands! It was (hopefully might continue to be) the only festival which I HAD to go to each year (except on the occasion where an operation precluded it).

As for being Southern biassed - heaven knows where that one came from. It was based in the Midlands (took me quite a long time to drive there every year from down in the South). The English singers booked were - to my eyes as a southerner - mostly from the North or the Midlands, or more to the point from Scotland and Ireland. The number of English singers had dwindled somewhat over the four or five years before the (so far) final one, when the number of English singers happily increased - and I would have said that the number of North/South individuals were relatively balanced around the UK on that occasion. I think you'll find that there are just as many good performers from the South of England who appear in clubs or Southern folk festivals who don't get booked either.

As far as I'm concerned the organisers certainly were booking what their customers wanted, and I am personally aware that they listened to suggestions which were given to them - otherwise why would so many of us have returned year after year without fail (and I know that I'm not the only one who's suffering from withdrawal symptoms!)

I submitted one or two possible locations (having contacted the conference centres in question for details first) as possible venues - but the requirements for the festival (needing at least 200 bedrooms for hire, bar, certain types of performance areas and rooms, catering facilities, proximity to an airport and transport locations etc, and availability over the Easter period ) do mean that there has been difficulty in finding somewhere else, as far as I know. I'm keeping my fingers crossed..........