The traders on the Esplanade were really bad this year, not just the number of them but their attitude. I was watching three morris sides dancing in one of the few spare spaces without a stall, one of the sides went up to dance and a trader instantly started setting up a stall table in the space where the morris dancers had just been standing. Once his assistant had put a couple of items on the table he then went up to one of the younger morris dancers and complained loudly that they were dancing in front of his stall.


George, with respect to why The Wilsons needed a sound check; it was really needed for that particular concert because they were celebrating 40 years of singing publicly together and so the first half was a lot of them chatting about their songs and influences, which is obviously a lot quieter than the five of them in full voice. They also had put together a slideshow of photos which needed the projector, screen and computer setting up.
None of the Sidmouth venues need massive amounts of amplification, but virtually all of them need some PA to balance and reinforce, and save the performers from killing their voices and instruments after a couple of days.