When I first saw this thread I was mildly surprised at the suggestion which seemed to me to be an over-reaction to one incident at one festival out of 10-odd previously-without-incident festivals at Shrewsbury/Brigenorth. But I thought, well, maybe the question needs to be asked and then put to bed.

But I'm becoming increasingly alarmed at the number of people coming down on the side of banning dogs at the festival.

I agree, dogs can be dangerous; owners have a responsibility to watch their dogs, clean up after them and guard against well-wishers who may be acting in a way that will antagonise the dog and cause an incident. Some people don't do this; there should be a mechanism for 'punishing' these people. But to ban dogs completely? Dogs and man have existed side by side for much of our development as modern man; they are part of our psychology, whether you own one or not. And if there is no other reason for why dogs should be allowed at festivals then surely it is this.

My second problem is that everything seems to be getting banned. My friend's daughter's school has banned the javelin from its sports days in case of injury. What happened to personal responsibility and taking a few risks? Banning dogs/javelins means that kids have one less opportunity to learn that dog/javelins might look benign, but need to be handled carefully. Are we to wrap our kids up in so much cotton wool that they have no idea how to survive in the world at large?

Sod it why take them to a real folk festival with mud and dogs and drunk people getting in your way whilst trying to watch the acts; where they could get hurt. I've got an idea! Virtual Shrewsbury Folk Festival! Right, video a bunch of folkie artistes and stream them over the web for the bank-holiday weekend. We could all wrap our selves up in our duvets and we wouldn't have to get wet or interact with anyone nasty at all.

I would not stop going to Shrewsbury if they banned dogs, but it would seriously affect my enjoyment of the festival; my favourite pastime other than all the other pastimes is dog spotting.

Meg (not a dog owner by the way).

P.S. Are you going to ban the Ferrets too? (They're cute, but I would certainly remind any child of mine not to poke their fingers anywhere near the mouth end; and I would certainly be saying "I told you so" if they did get bitten.) And, tent pegs? Vicious those. I fell over a number of guy ropes that weekend; admittedly they were all on my own tent. Should I ban my tent? Hmmm…