Folkiedave, when I started this thread I said that some festivals do not seem to encourage or support the fringe and asked why this is so?

Purely as one example I sited Shepley Spring Festival because camping is only available to full weekend ticket holders, leaving the fringe out in the cold. This is not an unfounded or unsupportable allegation, it is a fact and is clearley stated on the festival web site.

Contrary to what you think and are so defensive about I never intended to 'pick on' one particular festival. I only mentioned the Shepley Festival because I had just stumbled across more details of this festival on Mudcat as a new thread.
Also, because of the fact that there was no camping provided for non-ticket holders this seemed to me to be a suitable example to prove one of the points I was making.

Now that I have pointed this out to you would you PLEASE stop being so obsessively defensive about just one particular festival.
I realise that you are a 'stallholder' at this festival so obviously have massive personal investment in it's organisation,planning and promotion. Indeed on the mudcat thread for the Shepley Festival you also appear there as its most ardent and prolific voice and champion.

This is all very commendable but this thread is not, as I have pointed out, all about just one festival. It is about all folk festivals and their varying acceptance or non-acceptance of the fringe and why this should be so.

This is an open discussion which is open to everyone and should not be monopolised and taken over by one individual,who appears,I am sorry to say,to have a very blinkered perspective.

Can we therefore now get back to what this discussion is all about and invite other contributors to have their say.