Indeed Richard - you have it.

I have been to BFW twice - 2007 and 2008 and have really enjoyed the festival on both occasions. It suits me. Apparently there are those with Greater Expectations (get the Dickens reference? :-) )

The whole town is a kaleidoscope of music, dance, sea, sand, sun (?), history, friendship and spectacle - and then I turn to Mudcat and find out that there is another view of it and I feel sorry for those who were in the same place as me at the same time and who were so disappointed with their experience that they would not wish to go back again.

So I think that I shall try to lend a hand and see if we can approach the organisers to resolve some of the issues - no use just bitching on Mudcat. And I find that for my pains I get a lesson on what it used to be, what it's like elsewhere and where I may have got it wrong.

Nor do I understand the view that it is a cash cow. In the two years I have been to one tented event, the rest I have got for the price of the drinks I would have bought anyway and a few quid in a tin where I could just as easily have got away with a few pence if I felt really mean

The singarounds are free, the pub gigs are free, the morris is free, the bandstand is free, the prom is free, the torchlight parade is free, the camaraderie is free and I'm sure that this is not all. I do not feel that I have been ripped off - how can I ?

Really the one big thing above all was the security breakdown at the campsite and that was bad. Richard and I have written - I think anyone with an opinion should do so and quickly as I have been told that there is a committee meeting next week that will look at these issues. Let's see what comes from that