I saw Howard playing in the jig competition - what a fantastic afternoon - the young generation of dancers at last swept the board. It's fascinating looking at what Howard (and others in this thread) enjoyed - just look at the breadth of it (and with it being a week long festival you can get depth as well).

• Social dance in the EFDSS mould


• Ceilidh


• Discussions about the revival (Kirkpatrick/Rippon)


• Workshops about traditional musicians (Dukes/Tester)


• Morris -in all shapes and guises

What other festival offers the variety?
And above all - young people everywhere: dancing, singing, playing, acting. The ironic thing is that Radio 3 (well known as the young person's radio station) look to have got it right whereas the film makers for BBC4 seemed to go out of their way to film Steeleye Span, Yetties, Tiger Moth (and it is rumoured, ignoring the Chipolatas who played immediately prior to Tiger Moth) etc etc ... anybody see a pattern here? Surely not a preconceived notion that this is a music beloved only of middle-aged or aging beardies (Spiers and Boden, young, yes, but taken away from the hubbub to be interviewed in some idyllic woodland somewhere). OK - the program is not playing until August 28th - perhaps, perhaps they might have picked up something about what Sidmouth is about and why it is important; perhaps, perhaps they'll try and convey just how exciting and vibrant this music and this festival are.