Yes – this year’s Tolpuddle Festival has SOLD OUT of tickets for the camp site, which must put it on course for a record attendance.

I won’t be going. Mainly because of family committments, but officially I’m not going because I’m boycotting this year’s headliners, Chumbawamba, who I well & truly despise.

Mrs is a big fan, and because our musical tastes are fundamentally unreconcilable (and she would always win the argument) the relentless drone of Chumba’s self-righteous left-negativism used to befoul the flat’s atmosphere on a far too regular basis. Luckily now, Jnr’s musical tastes trump even hers, and we listen to nothing but “The Cat in The Hat” on autorepeat, which I think is a mercy of types.

Anyway, don’t let that stop you going – the wondrous Billy Bragg will be there, like the ravens in the Tower, and there’s Mark Thomas, The Men They Couldn’t Hang, and so much other stuff (and more than enough beer) to help you ignore the gaggle of oafish Prescott-dousers chanting “Can’t hear you, cos your mouth’s full of sh*t”, whilst failing to notice the turds in their own maw.

And hey, it might even be sunny!