"Ruth, I know why they have to clear the bulverton, that isn't my point, but having to wait for half an hour when it is cold wet and very muddy is no fun. No other venue is as exposed or as isolated - at least in previous year's you could stay in the bar."

I know that our infrastructure team is already looking at ways of addressing this for next year.


"The trouble with both the Bulverton and the Blackmore Garden ceilidh marquees is that there is very little space for people who aren't dancing, not everyone wants to or can dance every dance and needs to sit down or have a rest which is difficult when your squeezed in."

See, the paradox at the Bulverton is that, last year, the space set aside for that purpose was hardly used. it's hard to justify the extra space when the majority of it is sat empty throughout the week. Even this year, when I wanted a place to sit down up at the Bulverton I could usually find one (though maybe not the same seat all night). I think the one thing we didn't accomodate so much this year is the rows and rows of empty chairs which act mainly as a repository for ceilidh dancers' bags, jumpers etc. While I can understand that it is nice to know you have a "saved" seat to go back to when you want to sit a dance out, it costs a lot to create that extra space.

To be perfectly honest, this year was a make-or-break year for the Bulverton. It has been a loss-leader for the festival for several years, and if we didn't make it work this year, we risked losing it altogether. The strategy for addressing this was to rejuvenate the programme while reducing the costs, and to re-evaluate our catering partners in order to maximise the return on the secondary spend (bar and food) to the festival.

In reducing the size of the venue, we looked at ways of doing this while compromising the dance experience as little as possible. That's why the dance floor itself only lost 2 metres, while the space that was lost was the "sidelines" space. As I say, when I wanted to sit down this year, I usually found there was a seat available. It might have someone else's jumper over the back, but I moved if they returned. I think that a slightly more adaptable approach by ceilidh dancers in this respect will mean that the space is used to its fullest potential (and value).

So, to sum up, it isn't a case of "We'd like the big marquee back, please." It's a case of making the size of marquee work as it is, or not having a Bulverton at all. Having said that, as I said earlier in my post, our infrastructure team is looking at ways of using the space up there differently next year in order to create more chatting-and-standing-about space which is under cover.

We have similar issues with Blackmore, but again, the team is looking at ways of creating more undercover space for next year.