Oh joy, I've been entered again as myself, not as Guest!!!!   Apologies for not responding earlier, and thanks for all the help.

As JHW suggested some way back up there, I did continue playing until the Saturday, and my tips did indeed harden up again enough to allow me to get through it.

As our left-handed friend suggests above, I was using a capo - at the second fret for all my songs - so it was fairly comfortable. I had thought of moving over to my nylon-strung guitar, but I would have caused the sound desk some problems. I'm afraid fingerpicks on the picking hand have never suited me...

The last time I had this fretting-hand problem was a long time ago, playing bass; I moved to flatwound bass strings, and never had any problem from then on. This time, I had only just changed my strings (to my usual Martins, 10-47)... perhaps I should have stuck to old strings!

Many thanks
Cappuccino, Norfolk, UK