Jack - Whitby is very much a festival for traddies would you say? By that, I mean that they don't go in much for big names for the concerts but they do tend to book more trad folk acts for their programme.

I love Sidmouth and my OH and I have been every year for several years now but, for us, it's more a very enjoyable seaside holiday with a bonus of a festival to dip in and out of.

We're not big concert goers unless the acts are early music (like The Night Watch at Whitby last year) or very traditional; we would never go to see a folk rock band for instance. Not criticizing at all here - just stating a preference.

We went to Whitby for the first time last year and were completely won over - this is definitely a better festival for us. I found that there were so many workshops that I wanted to attend that I had to cherry pick. We also found that there was something on every slot of the programme that we wanted to do and choices had to be made. This doesn't happen to me at Sidmouth because the programme just doesn't appeal to me as much. This is a very personal reaction of mine and not a criticism in any way - I can't stress that enough - but it might be relevant to you.

Just to stress again - we love Sidmouth and intend to go again this year if we can afford both but, if pennies are short, then Sidmouth is the one we will dump because I just couldn't miss Whitby.