As no one has claimed the 1900 post I thought I would ;-)

Guest - the big difference is that Ireland hasn't had a far right government in power for the last 10 years who have driven education and public services into the ground - after all they don't want people to be educated they might think for themselves and not be fooled by all the propaganda published by the right wing press and ever increasingly by the Government itself!

Now to the point of my post.

The Great British Folk Festival at Skegness was excellent with a great mixture of long standing artists and younger bands - there was a very strong Scottish contingent with Skerryvore, Red Hot Chilli Pipers and, my favourites, Skippinnish headlining the three nights.

Of the more recently emerging artists Trials of Cato demonstrated why they have built up such a strong following so quickly

Sound and seating arrangements were both much improved compared to our last visit several years ago - I would certainly go again if the line up was as strong as this year

I understand there were around 5,500 people there and it certainly was very busy in both main venues. One downside was that one of the venues was incredibly cold (one artist told me there were icicles in the dressing room and I could believe it) and this needs to be resolved

Otherwise and excellent weekend in good company and a chance to hear some superb folk music (though Ronnie Laine's old band Slim Chance were outside even my broad interpretaion of the genre!)