Free entry for Royal Highland Winter Fair

I've yet to confirm this with anyone at the RHWF, but the Scotsman is today reporting that this year's Royal Highland Winter Fair will be a free entry event.

This was being mooted as the case at Stirling earlier in the week, with somee suggesting it was as much of a cost cutting exercise as a move to tempt more visitors to the show - apparently is was costing nearly as much to collect the money as was being earned from charging an entry fee.

The question is will this be enough to draw more visitors to the show or has the rot set in too deep already? I'll be intrigued to hear your thoughts, but I fear that unless the event can draw more trade stands it may well already be too late......