>>Acts are costing rediculous sums of money (including massive agency fees of course) eg £2,500 for a 45 mins spot and also imposing other clauses such as minimum hotel standards, the type of flowers they want in their dressing rooms, the right 'type' of water, free meals, transport etc.

Apparently Dave Allen did a tour in the late 80s and was perplexed why so many of the principal dressing rooms at the theatres he was playing were freshly painted pink. It turned out that Shirley Bassey had played most of the same circuit of theatres just before, and her contract stipulated that the Great Diva a pink dressing room.

I have yet to see a folk perfomer's contract rider stipulating the colour of their dressing room, or indeed demanding flowers (white lillies for Mick Jagger I'm told) but I have seen some other clauses that have made me shake my head in wonder. There are several performers out there that have been merrily shoving their prices up while dramatically shortening the time they play for. Those are the sort of performers that need to see rather less bums on seats at their gigs, in my view.

As to the great debate about whether "New Sidmouth" is better or worse than "Old Sidmouth", I think the only way to really know is to come and experience it. It is after all a rather nice place anyway, even without the music. What I do know is that the economics of Sidmouth in its old form had become unsustainable.