By the way, Lucy, I love your idea of a festival bag. I'd like to see festival organizers have not just a box of pens and paper, but a festival bag of stuff to hand out to younger kids who attend (with crayons and some kind of small, music-oriented coloring book – the story of "Puff the Magic Dragon" or some such – and stickers and other craft items such as an easy origami project). At least parents would get a small bonus for their money!

But really, there needs to be some place at the festival to take the kids to let them work off their energy with some dancing and singing!

At least, as you say, the music sometimes rubs off on the kids after all that exposure... in which case the kids are enjoying the music and you're getting what you've paid for!

As for the seniors (the pensioners), I'd say that the discount is mostly just an incentive to get them to come, since they're on a fixed income and might need a bargain to lure them out of the house at all (besides, if they're hard of hearing, they may only hear 50% of the lyrics anyway!). If it's any consolation, the pensioners who used to bring their kids to festivals have already paid that "three-times-as-much" price and they're being compensated for it now!

Question: if you become a festival volunteer, is child care provided along with free admission? If so, that might be an option for you to consider.