Perhaps Lewes is a foreign country; we do things differently here.

Lewes does have a bit of a name for doing things differently - particularly in the first week of November.

Seriously, it certainly sounds as if the scene there is in good health. I wonder if it's a local achievement or a Sussex thing (although I somehow doubt that Brighton is humming with Eng. Trad.) Or maybe the whole of the rest of England is doing great and Manchester's the odd one out - in which case I blame that Mike Harding...