Here we are agiain with a number of people taking time and energy to carp on and on about one small aspect of a huge event, as if sitting in the front row as a passive consumer was the only thing on offer at Shrewsbury.

There are any number of things happen over the 4 days and night that don't particularly appeal to me. What I do is go and do something else. I didn't want to be part of the big noisy crowd watchimg Bellowhead, I went to Marquee 2 and watched the Wilsons instead. Most of the time I spent actually singing and playing with several different groups of friends, some of whom I only ever meet every year at Shrewsbury/Bridgnorth. Didn't much fancy the Ukelele Orchestra, although pretty much everyone I have spoken to who went raved about them and said their set was brilliant. I thought this was going to give me a problem because the one act I would go anywhere to see is Richard Thompson. Thankfully the standing area at the front allowed me and a number of other RT fans to get up close and watch. Dave H was of course free to join us but chose his own place. Where there are thousands of people we can't all have the best seat in the house. Life is full of these choices/ compromises. You want pick of the seats and no queues go see someone not many people like.

I think Alan and Sandra do an astounding job putting on such a big festival with such a choice of artists/ performance venues. The sheer size of it is not to my taste, but is one of the reasons that my daughter knows she can meet a number of friends year after year. If you don't like big festivals go to smaller ones but there is no need to slag off people puttinng in huge efforts to provide what so many people want year after year