It's a bit like the Fringe here, moving rapidly from venue to venue to catch the next show on your list, a little easier because there are only half a dozen venues all within 5 or 10 minutes of one another.  It's also like the Fringe in variability of audience.  One unfortunate I saw had an audience of five but later I couldn't get into a session because the hall was full.  A guy similarly turned away told me he'd come from Australia specially to hear that particular quartet.  I suspect he exaggerated somewhat.

Also like the Fringe there is rather too much.  I was on the go from 9 in the morning till 11 at night yesterday and took in a dozen performances.  I found time nonetheless for an excellent two course lunch for only £5.95, pity about the cost of the wine.  Today I'm going to take it a little more slowly.

Having just played in a wind band concert it was fascinating, not to say humbling to hear the Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra backing a number of amazingly virtuosic soloists.Again it's been almost all new music.  I did hear a bit of Bartok but apart from that all unknown to me and again like the Fringe there were a couple of plonkers, though strictly speaking it was the material that I didn't care for rather than the quality of the performance.  In the Fringe it's frequently both but that's the glory and the shame of a totally unselective festival.