Sandra, i can completely sympathise with you. We have very little FOH space for traders, so it's not so much an issue with us, but we do have to weigh up the huge numbers of comp tickets we're required to provide against our venue capacity and break-even points.

A lot of people probably don't realise the number of free tickets a festival has to provide for artists' guests and any additional staff and crew they bring. Add in stewards and volunteers, press, VIP guests such as local councillors, sponsors, local businesses who have offered in-kind support, traders, catering staff...unless you're very careful it can completely spiral out of control.

It may seem mean, but my experience is that very few festival organisers are themselves getting rich: all they're trying to do is make the event viable into the next year.