>Downside, the timing of events during the day seemed to lead to far more clashes of events and especially across lunch time.

Definitely agree on the matter of timing of events, Malcolm, but from a slightly different point of view . I got to at least two events on time only to find the House full sign up. Because the events were all timed to start at the same time (for the evening one certainly - not sure about the others), there was no point in trying to get into another concert or event on the other side of town, due to wasted time, and the added likelihood that there would be no possibility of getting into that one either. Whitby on the other hand does have some staggered starts, which allows you the prospect of haring off to something else if you can't get into your first choice.