Sidmouth v Cambridge

Subject: Sidmouth v Cambridge
From: GUEST,Folkmeister
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 12:57 PM

Can someone explain why the organisers of Cambridge Folk Festival are moving their dates in 2008 so they clash headlong with the opening weekend at Sidmouth?

Why are the two biggest and longest-running folk festivals in the U.K. now in direct competition on the same weekend?

Are Cambridge just arrogantly assuming they'll sell-out as always and not worried about those of us who now have to choose between the two best folk festivals in the land?

Or is it a deliberate move by Cambridge to try and finish off their most successful and longest-running rival for the title of Britain's biggest Folk Festival?

Either way, it stinks.

Subject: RE: Sidmouth v Cambridge
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 01:03 PM

From what I know, and hear, I don't think they share many patrons. Or has Cherry Hinton Hall become a bastion of Morris dancing?
Nolo contendere mate.
Giok

Subject: RE: Sidmouth v Cambridge
From: Scooby Doo
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 01:04 PM

I expect in spite.But you will not stop each group going to there festival ie i would go to Sidmouth not Cambridge too modern for me.



Scooby.

Subject: RE: Sidmouth v Cambridge
From: Kevin Sheils
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 01:05 PM

This is not really new as I'm sure it has happened on a number of occasions over the years. I think Cambridge weekend is always (usually?) the one with the last Friday in July and Sidmouth always starts on the weekend of the first Monday in August so clashes frequently happen.

And I doubt if the organisers think they are really in competition. I don't think they are.

Subject: RE: Sidmouth v Cambridge
From: treewind
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 01:12 PM

I think they often clash. It has to do with the way the dates for the festivals are defined. Sidmouth is the first week in August, but I think that's defined as including the first Monday in August, and Cambridge is presumably the last weekend in July, based on the last Saturday or Sunday.

I'm sure they've overlapped before - we had to turn down an offer to perform in the Cambridge club tent one year because of that.

If Sidmouth moved later, the sequence Sidmouth-Broadstairs-Whitby would occasionally overlap by a whole week which would be worse.

Anyway, Sidmouth is full of morris teams, social dancers, ceilidhs, workshops and traditional folk concerts; Cambridge is a semi pop festival with Radio 2 stars and a bit of folk as a side-show. There's not a great deal of overlap in audiences between the two.

Anahata

Subject: RE: Sidmouth v Cambridge
From: GUEST,TopCat
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 01:20 PM

Agree Cambridge is no longer a Folk Festival and should stop calling itself one.

Last time I went to Cambridge a couple of years ago the site was horribly overcrowded and more than a dozen cars in the school field car park had been broken into and completely trashed.

Subject: RE: Sidmouth v Cambridge
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 02:55 PM

I once bought a Sidmouth ticket (in 1969, I think) for a friend who planned to come to Sidmouth after Cambridge - but in the event was too knackered after Cambridge to go anywhere else!

IIRC there was a time when Warwick also clashed with the start of Sidmouth...

Kitty

Subject: RE: Sidmouth v Cambridge
From: The Borchester Echo
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 05:18 PM

What's a lot more relevant is that WOMAD frquently clashed with the start of Sidmouth.
It was something to do with Berkshire school holidays that made it a moveable feast.
However now that it has relocated to rural Wiltshire requiring the ownership of a private helicopter for access. that's scarcely an issue.
Long ago (like 1969) it was a matter for serious consideration when Cambridge and Sidmouth clashed.
It's not now.
Neither is what it was.

Subject: RE: Sidmouth v Cambridge
From: GUEST,Chris Murray
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 07:32 PM

I thought that Cambridge always clashed with the first weekend of Sidmouth. Lots of people go from one to the other.

Subject: RE: Sidmouth v Cambridge
From: Declan
Date: 16 Nov 07 - 09:50 PM

Neither festival is what it was.

Both are what they are now, and I love both of them.

They haven't clashed for the last two years by accident of calendars. Will probably clash for the next 4 or 5 years for the same reason.

It doesn't seem to be as big an issue as it was under former Sidmouth management, when they seemed to cram more of the big name acts into the opening week-end. Things seem to be more spread out throughout the week in Sidmouth these days, and all the better for that in my opinion.

I'm sorry about the clash but it will add a few extra days to my holiday next year to do something else.

Subject: RE: Sidmouth v Cambridge
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 05:48 AM

last time I went to Cambridge, the queue for the ladies toilets nearly reached to Sidmouth. Never again.

Subject: RE: Sidmouth v Cambridge
From: Mo the caller
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 09:12 AM

Why did you want to queue for the ladies?

Subject: RE: Sidmouth v Cambridge
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 09:24 AM

Cambridge pop festival more like.

eric

Subject: RE: Sidmouth v Cambridge
From: Folkiedave
Date: 17 Nov 07 - 09:27 AM

I think the reason big name acts opened at Sidmouth when the weekend clashed was two fold - some went from one festival to the other over the weekend - I remember Lindisfarne doing that for example at the 49th or 50th.

The other reason is that like Cambridge, Sidmouth was also a week-end festival for people who could only get for the weekend. This often included dance teams for example as well as people buying day tickets. Naturally the weekend was the busiest time.

But some big name acts were certainly mid-week or later. The Waterson Family Concert and Altan+Spiers and Boden on a previous season for example were Wednesday.