Nutty wrote:
I'm turning into a grumpy old women but there are things happening on the folk scene that are really getting up my nose.

The latest is Warwick Festivals idea to charge a booking fee if you pay for your ticket with anything other than cash.
No longer are you asked to send a stamped addressed envelop - cost 26p for first class stamp - but a compulsary £2 added to cost of the weekend.

Nobody likes paying added fees, but I really think you are being slightly unreasonable.

All folk festivals, whether they are being run by volunteers or by paid organisations, are commercial enterprises, in as far as they have costs and they have to meet those costs. The only way they can do this is by ticket sales and/or sponsorship.

I don't have any brief for any particular festival, but I do know that a number of festivals have tried to keep their ticket prices down by introducing this sort of tiered pricing.

The cost of camping, credit card processing, admin costs for dealing with ticket requests and sending out the tickets, are all costs that the festival has to contend with. They can either lump these costs into the ticket price for everybody, or they can charge those that use the facility. This is the growing trend to which you refer.

Surely it is fairer that those that choose to purchase their ticket online should pay the associated costs, and those that want to camp should likewise pay for the camping. Or do you think that non-campers should subsidise those who do camp?

The booking fee is just a way of funding the costs of processing.

Those that don't use an online facility can usually send in a cheque and SAE and not have to pay the booking fee. Oh and by the way, the cost of a first class in the UK is now 36p - it hasn't been 26p for years!!

Finally, I think you would be hard-pressed to find many venues and events these days that do NOT charge a 'booking fee'. And folk festivals are still incredibly good value when compared to other genres. And if you went to see each of the top 3 or 4 headliners at your local arts centre/theatre on separate occasions, you would probably pay a total amount equal to the weekend ticket. And think of all the other value that you get at the festival.

Rant over.