Sidmouth Folk Week 2010: Selected pre-festival press articles.
Part of Article from 'View from Sid Vale' free newspaper, 8 January 2010.
Five years funding for folk week.SIDMOUTH Town Council is to support folk week, the town's most important cultural event
of the year, with £20,000 worth of funding over the next five years.
The support, which was agreed in principle at the last council meeting in December, is
awaiting formal approval at its next budget meeting.
Meanwhile, Sidmouth Folk Week has announced a new 'strengthened management team", with a glittering line-up of artistes booked for 2010. FolkWeek artistic director, Joan Crump, said, "I'm very excited about the artists that we've already booked. But there are plenty more guests to add to the line-up over the next few weeks. "Work is progressing on further improvements to the Sidmouth Folk Week venues, including the campsite, to reflect comments from festival goers and in order to enhance the festival experience'.
From the 'View from the Sid Vale' free newspaper, June 2010.
In 2009 much was made of a grant from Devon County Council for £10,000 - together with an unprecedented grant of £15,000 from Sidmouth Town Council. In 2010 publicity was far more muted - the DCC grant was reduced to £5000, in line with that from Sidmouth Town Council.
Given the cutbacks looming within Devon County Council, who knows what 2011 may bring? The festival may become critically dependent upon income from commercial sponsorship - which would explain why so much effort has been devoted to this.