Sue Oates is the new chair now, and Tredegar House Festival is being vastly improved to a friendly and magical weekend again. We've done away with the stewards and other willing volunteers having to pay for their tickets, and CAMRA will serve a vast range of Welsh real ales again.

One of the highlights of Tredegar House Festival is foreign dance teams flying in and being put up by Newport families, with resulting friendships that can last a long time. This year we're inviting the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation (from Greece) and Taarnby Kvadrillen (from Denmark). For internet-challenged mudcatters, the mouth-watering line-up is Nancy Kerr and James Fagan, Mick Ryan and Pete Harris, One String Loose, Juice, the Dai Bach Band, Albino Frogs and Piper's Wyrd from Northumberland.

The only cloud is that our grant is being slashed AGAIN, by £6,000. However, we're not deterred; and we'll welcome you on the weekend of May 9, 10 and 11, 2008. If you come to Tredegar House, the dance displays are all free; and you can wander in the grounds and around the magnificent rooms of the 16th-century house.

Mick Tems