I think the reason big name acts opened at Sidmouth when the weekend clashed was two fold - some went from one festival to the other over the weekend - I remember Lindisfarne doing that for example at the 49th or 50th.

The other reason is that like Cambridge, Sidmouth was also a week-end festival for people who could only get for the weekend. This often included dance teams for example as well as people buying day tickets. Naturally the weekend was the busiest time.

But some big name acts were certainly mid-week or later. The Waterson Family Concert and Altan+Spiers and Boden on a previous season for example were Wednesday.