We've been to the hop festival every year that it has been running (except one) and enjoyed them immensely.
The one drawback however is that if you want to find an open singaround it can be quite difficult.

They seem to be in a different place each year, sometimes they're not really wanted by the locals - e.g. The Old Vaults on Saturday afternoon, where Bob K and his friends had to sing every song at the top of their voices just so that they could hear themselves over the background laughing and shouting! Not a chance of an unaccompanied song.
I don't know if we missed any good sessions, but this was the first year that I came away without having sung a single song.

Spontaneous sessions have sometimes arisen, but again you've got to be very lucky to stumble across them.

Maybe next year one of the pubs might like to put a room aside, e.g. the Faversham folk club room at the Chimney Boy, and just get someone to run it as a singaround.

Just a thought.
K/van