I'd like to see a general practice of putting up a thread any time you're planning to go to a festival, and then via that maybe setting up some arrangements to meet up at some time and place.

But I'd also like to have a get together that didn't coincide or clash with a festival, which would give more chance to swap songs and make music together.

Do we need to go for something on a weekend, or would weekdays be OK?

If weekdays are OK, one possibility might be to tag it on to an existing festival, as a kind of fringe event before or after. For example Fylde starts on a Thursday and goes on to the Sunday, so if we were to arrange to gather on the previous Monday or Tuesday it'd make a week of it, which I suspect might quite fit in with what Alan Bell is doing anyway, by arranging folkish concerts on the days leading up to the festival proper, which might make it easier getting approval for camping or whatever, and there would probably pubs which would have no problem with welcoming sessions.

Fylde is a long way from where I live - but it is actually pretty close to the geographical centre of Great Britain, and getting there by pubic transport isn't too much of a problem. (That was a problem for me with Llanfair.)

Or there might be other festivals where that kind of thing could be done. Walton in Essex for example, or Leigh-on-Sea.

Otherwise if it's a question of a weekend which won't clash with other festivals, there aren't many that don't, up until the coldish end of the year.

But the idea of a Mudcat gathering makes a lot of sense. A Mudfest.