Simon Boakes has just called me and explained the situation at length. He says that the refunds will now be made as quickly as possible (in the next few days). He apologised profusely for the situation, which arose from some inexperienced people in the Events Office who weren't properly briefed on the situation giving false information about how quickly it was possible to make refunds.

He is anxious to run a festival but doesn't want to clash with others, so he asked my advice on when would be the best time to hold the rescheduled event. (The suggestion of moving it to later in June so it didn't clash with Ryedale was made - what's the opinion?)

I have to say that I felt he was genuine, both in his explanation and his desire to run a successful folk festival that would appeal to as many people as possible. He suggested that, in the future, monies paid would be held by someone independent of the organisers so that people could be certain it was in safe hands.

Let's see if we receive the refunds as promised and take it from there.