I hadn't been to C# House before, living out in the provinces, in the shadow of the same hills Mr Peters is to be found clinging to the side of.

I have to say that compared to a lot of the folk events I've been to, the venue was fine - the sound in the main auditorium sounded pretty good to me and the room itself was airy rather than gloomy. The atmosphere of the place was no doubt helped by the cheerfully subversive David Owen artwork everywhere - I hope some of that can stay up longer term... makes a change from the twee or austere or faux-peasanty or just plain dull art usually associated with folk. There was Old Speckled Hen on tap and although it ran out early, it was good while it lasted. Yes, some areas could do with sprucing up and a touch of, erm, funkification, particularly the cafe, which has a touch of the WRVS-stall-meets-church-hall-tearoom about it, but these things take time and money. I'm sure they'll come, along with the neon signs and so on. There seemed to me to be a really positive vibe about the place.

Also, it helped that there was liberal sprinkling of young people in the audience and they weren't all geeks. As usual at folk events, my generation, the forty-something folk traitors, were less well represented. That's okay, we're already yesterday's men and women... notable exceptions excepted and noted!

The MAIN thing is, though, is that this was a bloody good event. Some of the best young and not so young singers on the English traditional scene whooping it up and putting on an excellent show. I know folk music is supposed to be about everyone's right, regardless of talent or ability, to cough out approximations of scarcely remembered ballads in piss-smelling back rooms of pubs (and apologies to those of you who do this with verve and elan...). But sometimes it's great to see these songs in the safe hands of talented perfomers who clearly love and have a deep regard for this music. To my mind, events like this demonstrate that the EFDSS is not resting on its historical laurels, but proactively working to earn its place in the vanguard of today's trad music scene. If it continues in the same vein, things are looking up.

So a shout going out, as they (probably don't) say, to Joan, Derek, the singers and all others who made this event such a success.

Finally, any organisation that appoints as its president the woman responsible for Anthems in Eden, Love, Death & The Lady, No Roses and The Power of the True Love Knot has to be pretty friggin' special in my book...