I must make irony more obvious in the future.

Have you heard the one about how many fringe events does it take to make a folk festival? Oh sorry my mistake it wasn't a joke but a serious question. It seems to me with the events listed on the Sidmouth Folk Week website, Tony Days message here, Ray Goodswen's dance series and other events there is a line up which many other festivals would envy. Lets be grateful for the effort many people are putting in to organise this. OK it is not as big as the past few years but how many times have you heard people say "It was better in the good old days when it was smaller". And if you do not want to go so be it.

As for the international dance sides I hear that efforts are being made to get a team of Moldovan pole dancers this year(from a very discrete club, I can give you the name if you ask).

And a team of Peruvian kipper dancers in their multi-colur souwesters were going to be going but when they heard of the possibility of Cloggies from Burnley being there they pulled out saying they could not compete with anything as exotic as that.

Adrian