.Setting a Date
Most of the good performers in your area will have diaries extending months into the future. Usually, if you pick a date six months hence, you stand a fair chance of booking one of the better units. You can also improve your prospects by choosing a time in the "dead bands" - March through to the end of April, or from the middle of September to the middle of November. Specifically, many musicians attend the Sidmouth and Whitby Folk Festivals in the first and last weeks of August. Remember, too, that most local musicians visit, or are working at, Shrewsbury Folk Festival on the last weekend in August. Also on that weekend are the Towersey and Wadebridge Festivals.