OK, there are no quotes here, but I have been ferreting about and had some " off the record" remarks made. It would appear the councils do talk to each other and the main function of a festival of any kind is to convince the public that councillors and councils are doing something for them. Free festivals are usually for the locals but, in the case of Scarborough, it is also to bring in visitors. The general feeling is that a Sea music festival will not bring in enough people but pop festivals do, so councils are looking for "the next Glastonbury", Especially with Glastonbury not being on this year. To break that mould they had to wrest control of booking the acts away from the incumbents and hand it on to people who are "right on and hip, and know what the public want". In the case of Hull they were prepared to give the incumbents some say so long as they could have their pop bands, Scarborough took another tack and asked "Scarborough Acoustic" to organise the booking of acts. Scarborough Acoustic have run an annual "Pop" orientated free festival in Peasholme Park for a few years which, by all accounts, is very well attended. I think they were prepared to book some of the acts already booked whether that would have been on reduced fee, certainly there would have to have been some renegotiation. Scarborough Acoustic have had their funding withdrawn so their event will no longer be a free festival (a sum of £15 for the day was mentioned somewhere) That was also a suggestion from the police to make the event more manageable (keep the riff raft out) and the "bring your own booze" policy is to be replaced by a beer tent (no surprises their then!) So folks, at the end of the day it is the squeeze on this type of, what the councils see, minority interest group. The way forward is for our community to get together and find our own venue, fund our own venture and stick two fingers up to the Councillors and councils who know sweet FA about our community and care even less. Oh and if you read the article about apollo leisure and Scarborough council you will understand what a bunch of blithering small minded amateurs they are. Whilst I can see that Scarborough Acoustic were caught between a rock and a hard place on this one I can't help but think that their main concern was the festival in Peasholme Park and this may have been part of the political game to bolster or secure their main event. As I said, the people I have spoken to would not want to be named and will vehemently deny what has been said, after all it was over a few beers and I am sure they would have thought I would have kept my council.....still it had to be said.