With the Sidmouth Folk festival gearing up for this year’s event, businesses in the town have the ideal opportunity to boost their sales by taking the opportunity to be ready for the first week in August.

The event which has been running in the town for more years than most would care to remember, was suddenly brought to an inevitable halt with the festival being cancelled last year for safety reasons. As the news leaked out that it is all back on for this year, those hard-core fans of the festival will no doubt be keen to get down and make the most of it. Local companies should be stocking up and preparing themselves for the influx of people who will be arriving at the end of July.

Those who have been in the town for many years will be familiar with the protocol adopted for the week of frivolities, and whilst some find it a bit of a chore, we should all be grateful of such an event at a time when many businesses have found it a struggle to get their doors open again after several lockdowns.

It may seem like an age since you have had to consider the Folk Festival but taking the opportunity to stock up on the items that we know will sell well during the August week is really the most basic of principles to be employed. The possibility of extra staff may be a consideration and whilst this always comes at an expense it will surely prove to be a benefit.

Seeing the town full of happy, if slightly inebriated, people may have become something unusual over the last two years and although we must still be as careful as we can, it is a safe bet that social distancing will be a phrase consigned to the past by some, but it won’t hurt to be a little conscious of your surroundings.

Whatever you may think of the festival, let's hope that the weather holds up, after all we should all have the opportunity for a little extra business.