Only just got round to reading this thread but I wanted to add that I had a marvelous time as ever at the shanty this year. For me it was spoilt by only one thing....Landlocked. Lads why spoil a perfectly good weekend by announcing your break up :( You will be missed - so how about an annual comeback for the Hull Shanty fest?

Also a big thankyou to Jackie and Ray for their hospitality on Sunday evening. On Monday morning I thought I'd only dreamt about the perfectly parked mobile home/mini bar outside the Minerva. What a fabulous idea!

And finally, although I wasn't there on the Friday night in the Black Boy I do think that Wyrestew should have at least checked out his facts before attempting to shame people by naming them personally. If you take your children in pubs, especially busy, smokey city centre ones on a weekend evening then it's often going to be frowned upon, either by the landlord, other users, and certainly by the police. Learn to live with it, you took that risk on board when you had the kids and so it's your problem don't blame someone else. The session in the Black Boy wasn't an official part of the festival, the pub doesn't have a suitable sized room away from the bar, and it has regular townie drinkers in there as well as folkies. In Maggies defence she's used to having kids around in sessions(thinking of all the lil'ducks in Whitby)she isn't the one with the problem here.

I'm all for welcoming kids into folk sessions and I do wish that the UK laws would relax and reflect a more Europeon approach to families in pubs but until that happens we are stuck with it. It's not an issue of how well the kids behave, it's simple the law.

(By the way I heard Hannah sing in the Green Bricks and she was great, keep it up!)

Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to have a 'go' and for tolerating my efforts when I did.