Whitby has a lot of workshops (£5 a time or free with a season ticket), free (collecting tin) sessions, singarounds and displays, dancing of all sorts, enough excelent concerts to keep you busy but the emphasis is on Traditional rather than the Headline names. So you don't usually need earplugs and the musicianship is superb.

The workshops cater for all levels of dancing and playing - the difficult part is chosing what to go to and what to miss (and how to run down the clif and across the habour in 2 mins).