Apologies Lizzie - you're right. Without you, no one would know about any of the artists you've given your "support" to. Tell me - have The Demon Barbers and CBS put pen to paper yet to thank you for saving their moribund careers?

These people are professionals, lizzie. They know what they're doing.

Coope Boyes and Simpson are doing brilliantly in a "smallish" world, because, to be perfectly honest, unaccompanied harmony singing is not for everyone - not even all folkies. My ex-husband, for one, who likes a lot of popular folk and listens regularly to Mike Harding, used to leave the room if I put them on. Horses for courses. You can't MAKE people like something just becasue you think it's good.

"The younger people in the folk world, I think, struggle to get their names out there, because of the ridiculous attitude that persists to this day, of having to have been on the circuit for at least 10 years or more before you're taken seriously etc..."

Don't talk complete rubbish, Lizzie. Jackie Oates. Lisa Knapp. Jim Causley. James Reynard. Kris Drever. Park Bench Social Club. Bodega. Mawkin. Do I have to go on? Cause I could. The scene is full of young performers at the moment who get gigs, festival slots and radio airplay (though not necessarily Mike Harding). If anything, the people usually complaining about not being able to get a look-in are the ones who have been doing the club circuit for 10 or 20 years or more and feel they've never been given the opportunities to progress into the mainstream.

You keep trying to convert people one at a time, Lizzie. Go for your life. But be realistic about the impact you have on these artists' success.

So what if Sidmouth hasn't got The Demon Barbers this year? It may be the only festival in YOUR world, but there are over 300 folk festivals in the UK. And the Demons will be programmed at several of them. They played Sidmouth 2 years ago, and no doubt will play it again. To be successful, a fesitval has to have a sufficient variety and rotation of guests each year to maintain the interests of repeat attenders. Not every one wants to see the same bands every year. And most people don't just go to the festival that happens to take place in their home town - they travel, and spend a lot of money, and a festival has to keep doing new things in order to both keep old punters and attract new ones.