Although I sang to myself for the best part of forty years, I started singing regularly in a folk club only a couple of years ago and I found it very difficult to handle chorus songs, let alone unplanned instrumental accompaniment! I can imagine the latter not only affecting the rhythm and pace but possibly not quite hitting the same pitch.

I still have problems with choruses. Should one try to stay in control, forcing or slowing the pace, or should one give into the 'choir'? Keeping control while facing the hearty voices and massed ranks of Hartley Morris in the Neptune is not easy, even when they are singing the same version of the chorus!

Anyway, another fantastic festival in one of the best places to be in SE England. I managed the Neptune every day bar one and Tom and Barbara's Singaround every evening. I only went to the Folk Club once. It did not seem to be as well attended as in previous years. I also missed a lot of Traveling Folk faces which is a pity as their participation was an important element of the folk end of the folk/mass-entertainment spectrum that is Broadstairs.

Richard