Well that's coming at the problem from a different angle than I would have thought of.

At a festival such as Jamberoo, where a number of venues are huge marquees, you would need several of these things, and wouldn't that be prohibitively expensive, even if they were shared? And they would have to be enormous.

I think part of the charm of the festivals is being able to hang on the edge of a marquee with people spilling out of it, and have a listen before deciding whether to go in or find another one. I like wandering around the stalls and having a coffee etc with music wafting on the air.

I know the festival organisers have to give a lot of thought to the placement of the open venues, so that they don't interfere with each other.

As far as their proximity to camping areas is concerned, many festivals have addressed that by having two areas, one for the nightowls who don't mind being amongst the festival music, and a quieter area further away for those who want to do their own thing or sleep. I haven't been to Woodford, so I don't know the specific problems there. Is there nowhere you can camp to get away from it?

Personally I like to be close, and even on the very rare occasions when a concert is on and I am in my tent, I find the background music pleasant to go to sleep by. More often, though, you would find me up very late at a session somewhere long after the concerts are finished.

As for the morning, I rather like being woken up to the sound of the poets' breakfast, even if I do feel a little guilty because I'm s'posed to be there.

Jenny