It's the biggest and the best, certainly in the North of England. It is a celebration of British music and dance. Dance sides abound even dancing in the tiniest of pubs where the floor has to be supported with Acro props !
The fringe is almost as big as the festival and I would recommend cherry-picking your concerts/displays and mixing them with sessions on the fringe.
The surrounding countryside is glorious and some of the villages especially along the coast are very beautiful.
Accomodation is a problem though, start looking NOW ! Camping close to the town is limited, the two sites closest no longer have camping facilities so you will have to travel further afield unless you can access the festival site with a ticket, there are good financial reasons to actually buy a ticket as camping alone will cost you almost as much if you are staying the whole festival.
Hope you visit and have a great time, you'll probably find me in the back room of the Black Horse, great little pub where we get a good cross section of singers