Over the past three years Liz and I have been responsible for the Ballad sessions at Whitby Folk Week. The daily event grew rapidly into a 'sell-out' over this period and we averaged around twenty ballads per session. Generally the singing was of the highest standard,indeed, as many of you will attest, I was in the enviable position of being able to call on 'floor singers' to sing us their offerings, who included the likes of Ray Fisher, Will Noble, Cath Tyler, Rachel Unthank and many others who would have been booked guests elsewhere. The sessions, under our tenure, invited anyone to sing and the evidence was that there are a great number of people out there working hard on presenting these wonderful songs. Now, as to ballads being boring, how long is your attention span? The longest performance I noted was Cuthbert Noble singing Mike Waterson's version of 'Tam Lin'. At 6'.30" in length, unhurried and beautifully delivered. Overall, the average ballad, assuming we're using the Chil canon as a guideline, only takes 5 to 6 minutes to do justice. Sadly the Whitby Ballad Session is returning to its old concert-style format next year despite our protestations. There is a great demand for such events and yet they tend to be ignored or marginalised by festival organisers.