I have never said it was a folk festival. What I have said is that there is now no adequate and acceptable space for folk. If that flows from a conscious business strategy, well there it goes. Part of the festival is largely gone and what is left will come to be more and more like Saturday night (as I was told) was.

Folkies have never asked for the whole town. Just enough space (physically and acoustically and fermentationally) for themselves and anyone who does want to listen to them.

Folk song has been part of the beer and ale making tradition - and indeed harvest festivities generally - since before Shepherd Neame was founded in 1649. It is a shame if there is no more room for it.