My point was that far from being a drain on a festival the fringe sessions and similar events make an important contribution to the atmosphere, and for some of us are at least an important a draw as the guest list.

There will always be a few freeloaders, but If collections are made they can contribute financially as well. My observation is that most people attending sessions contribute when the tin goes around (and many of those attending will also be ticket-holders).

There are some festivals which acknowledge this and where a first-time visitor will be directed to suitable venues with a good chance of finding something they enjoy. There are others which don't do this, where the visitor is left to find out for themselves. Regular visitors get to know where to go, but for the first-time or occasional visitor this can waste a lot of time. For this visitor at least, this diminishes the festival experience and may affect my choice of which festivals to attend in future.

I believe the Whitby Eurosessions started simply because a group of people were there for the festival and found that style of music wasn't catered for in the official programme. That's a choice for the festival organisers, of course, but people can't then be blamed for making their own arrangements. Social media make it easier to publicise these things, but it's not really any different from people meeting in the street and agreeing to go to a particular pub for a session.