If you feel that £58 is a bit on the heavy side for a weekend ticket, that's you're opinion and you're obviously entitled to it. But have another look at the lineup and tell me where you'd get similar for better value.

"£15 for a day ticket is about as bad as there appears very little for the money apart from Victoria Room events."

A £15 day ticket, depending on the day you're coming, will include artists like Lisa Knapp, the Young Coppers, Kerfuffle, The Distil Showcase, Mary Humphreys and Anahata, Belshazzar's Feast, Maggie Holland, Wistman's Wood, Shirley Collins's America Over the Water...plus Loughborough Traditions, including Mike Waterson and Louis Killen, Pete Coe, Jim Causley et al...plus the workshops and talks taking place at the Ramada, including Doc Rowe's films of the Copper family...plus ceilidhs with Last Orders, Tickled Pink...and singarounds and sessions.

I'm afraid I don't see that as £15 badly spent, though you may disagree.


"£150 for a Family Ticket is downright discriminatory."
Well, parents will choose the ticket that best suits them. If you've got children under 9, weekend tickets for each of them will cost you a fiver, so you won't need the family ticket. The family ticket will suit families with 2 or more older children, and for some, but not everyone, works out at pretty decent value. Family tickets are notoriously difficult to get just right. Unfortunately, our venue has a limited capacity. Every person in the main auditorium, regardless of their size or age, is taking up a seat. We have to make that work financially, while still offering the best value we can.

I really don't know how to respond to your accusations of exclusivity, apart from saying that yes, we do charge admission to the festival and no, if you haven't bought a ticket you won't be able to enjoy the events which are taking place.

The reason you weren't allowed into the Town Hall in the evening is because the festival was sold out and you didn't have a ticket. Again, I'm very sorry, but the festival was extremely popular and tickets sold out before the event. Because of our limited front of house space and fire regulations, a decision was reluctantly taken on the day to close the Town Hall to everyone except ticket holders.

We tend to encourage participation in folk with our outreach work. We have done extensive work in folk arts with 9 local partner schools, and will be working with them again this year.

If you just want somewhere to go and sing (which is what I remember from our phone conversation last year) why not start a fringe event in a local pub?