 Under MacColl's writing and direction, and Seeger's musical direction, they went on to produce an annual show called the "Festival of Fools", a satirical review of the previous year which always drew capacity audiences but attracted little attention from either national or niche folk music press.Staged each Christmas season for five years, they moved rapidly on three stages through sketches and songs, loosely based around folk customs.The shows, from 1966 on, were performed in the back room of a pub just up the road from the Union Tavern, the New Merlin's Cave, since demolished.