It IS a one-off Festival Whitby , unique for many good and bad reasons.
The difficult thing for many is , that, it is ( basically ) a Monday to Friday festival and not a weeekend one, so it attracts certain types of people. It is not everyone who can give up a weeks work to go to a Festival and holidays these days seem usaully to be spent in more exotic climes like Benidorm , though I don't subscribe that type of thing myself.
So we are left with enthusiasts who take a weeks holiday from work, school teachers , unwaged , students , retired persons ,and the occasional wage slave from the surrounding areas who is going to work the next morning with a hangover and Oh !!! the captain of the sailing ship, tied up opposite the Tap and Spile. There are also quite a few lapsed folkies who are wandering around , in and out of boozers, reliving their youths at Whitby Fest.and therefore it is, -what it IS and in general I enjoyed my visits on the Sunday and the Thursday night ( I think it was ).
Like any situation you generally only get out what you put into it - but - I must take exception to the pony tailed barman marshalling people away from the 1st Room on the right at the entrance of the Tap and Spile on the Thursday night .
How the Fuck does he know who is a Folkie or not - and it's nothing to do with him.
Unfortunately it appears that a sterile, self-congratulary, pseudo elitist bunch inside , had coached him into keeping out the riff raff.
Such Elitism especially when self proclaimed has no place in a busy well used folkie pub , far better that they all find a pub ( which no nornmal person wants to go to in any case) than practice the miserable and silly action of exclusion, but it doesn't work unless it's already in a busy place , and that's part of their buzz.
Unfortunately Whitby - like other Festivals can be like THAT but just try to remember the good bits.