Paul and Santa - maybe you haven't followed the story.
I think many people from The Saltburn Festival would have liked to see some of the attractive line up at Pickering.(Whether they could afford tickets for 2 Festivals is another matter).
Pickering has never held a Folk Festival before, and the dates it chose to organise it's first one, was the same weekend as the established Saltburn Folk Festival.
The effects of the clash in dates are well documented in this thread.
If Pickering has the expertise and management which it claims, then it appeared to some that it was an extraordinary decision to choose the same weekend as an established festival some 25 miles away.
The rest is history.