Festivals like Sidmouth afford one the opportunity to sample and experience the whole range of emotions. For example ,one could listen to George Papadopoulous singing some of his wonderful,deep,thought- provoking compositions,then go to the Ham,possibly and sit through an achingly,side-splitting Sid Kipper concert. This tends not to happen in clubs,in my experience, as they are either very serious,finger -in -ear EFDSS- type bastions of tradition, or else somewhere that features an'in- your- face',all-girl,lesbian ,punk-type electric band, as I saw once in Bracknell---and very good they were ,too !! ( if you like that sort of thing !! )

(Papadopoulous?! That's a new one on me!)

Not just festivals; there are plenty of clubs around where you can see such variety - not necessarily in the same week, but they offer a varied programme where you could see the likes of George or Sid, or Vin, or Martin Carthy, or just about anybody, maybe on consecutive weeks - not sure about the lesbian punk band, but I've seen acts in some of these clubs not too far away from that :-)

I prefer this type of club myself, because I like a wide range of music and believe variety is the spice of life, etc., etc.