Which UK/European festivals/marathons/encuentros would you recommend?

[TTanguero]

I don't bother with refundable bookings as over the last 3 years the extra costs for refundable bookings over all of the events are significantly larger than my loss for the single cancelled one.

Yeah, I think a lot of people don't do the sums on this sort of thing. It's like pet insurance. I've never had it and have on a few occasions had four-figure vet bills. However, the total premiums on all the pets I have had across all the years I have had them would have been substantially higher.