Re: The National Folk Festival at Sutton Bonington, near Loughborough, England, weekend of April 8th.

In the post this morning I received notification that the festival has been cancelled; quote from festival director John Heydon:

"I have now been advised that due to the Foot and Mouth epidemic, all conferences, and the National is considered a conference, on the Sutton Bonington Campus, have been cancelled until after Easter. In these circumstances, this year's festival cannot be held...I am proposing to ask the same guests to take part in next year's festival over the weekend 12th-14th April 2002. ...Some of the Irish and American contingent are committed to coming to the UK. Haddenham Ceilidhs has its normal ceilidh on Sat 7th April...attached to the [village] hall is a small room ideal for informal concerts. I intend asking all artists who were committed to the National for the weekend to consider coming out to Haddenham and having a small National 'cancelled' party".

See Foot and Mouth thread for more discussion on F&M.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but isn't it a little strange that events like folk festivals are forced to cancel to help 'contain the outbreak', while for horse racing meetings nationwide it's "business as usual"?