I tend to agree with you Big Al, losing its way is a good way to describe it. Only a few years back there were dance sides every 50m on the promenade, now its almost exclusively Traders. It follows from that, that if fewer dance sides are now coming to Sidmouth, (maybe Derek could tell us that), there will be fewer muscians in the sessions.

I know the Bedford had a second session in a back room, but the door was closed it was pre-agreed by the participants, and to some extent that always happened. However, in previous years there was always a Folk type session in the left hand bar, and a Old Time American session in the right hand bar, as far as I could see only the left hand bar has survived.

I have been going to Sidmouth for many years and have had some of the best times there, but I feel the Festival is moving away from people like me, towards to the next generation, which in some respects is ok, but the danger is it becomes stuck between the two, and is a bit of everything and not much of anything