My mate, Dave Hunt of Sunshine Arts, has posted this today on Facebook. I checked the website of the festival that he refers to in his post and there is no reference to this apology so I cannot offer multiple sources that use multiple sources to authenticate Dave's post. I believe , but cannot prove, that Dave was a performer at that festival, so it could be that this apology was sent by circular email; I can only speculate. However, my faculty for critical analysis suggests to me that it has a ring of truth about it. I cut and paste his posting with no alteration:-

Now all you people who want to stay blacked-up....see this. and it ain't going to be the last festival to take this stance!
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Lunar Festival, Moseley, B.ham

A LUNAR APOLOGY...
On a more serious note we would like to apologise to anyone who was offended at this year's Lunar Festival.

As you will have seen, we had a performance by a Border Morris team who cover up their faces with Black paint to replicate 16th Century impoverished workers who covered their faces with ash as a disguise whilst dancing for food.

We have received a complaint from customers stating they feel in the modern world this is inappropriate as it can be easily misinterpreted and can, and has caused offence. We pride ourselves on being an inclusive festival bringing artists and people from all over the world together so we have decided not to book any more Border Morris team's going forward.

We also had an unsavoury situation with a new trader deciding it was appropriate to sell Golly Dolls on site. We are a very small team over-looking the whole event with over 40 traders and concessions and were only aware when the issue was raised by a member of the public. We were shocked and disturbed and immediately asked the seller to remove them from sale which they promptly did. Needless to say they won't be returning to any of our festivals and we'll adopt a stricter vetting process for future traders in 2017.

We agreed with those who raised both issues to our attention that it was best to discuss both issues openly so anyone else who felt offended can see it was never our intention to cause offence.

For both issues we wholeheartedly apologise.

We'll be working hard to improve Lunar and bring you even more fun and entertainment in a safe and relaxing environment for 2017.
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TAKE NOTE!!