Think, people! Given the difficulties of travel in 1954, comfortably predating the ease of international travel that the jet engine has brought to us, is it really surprising that few traditional singers made the trip to Sao Paolo? What was the cost, London to SP? No paying gigs there, just an international conference with much talking and (I suspect) few sessions?

Can it genuinely be said that those who did represent folk music there were patronising and arrogant, and deliberately excluded traditional folk? Or is this just latter-day chips on shoulders?   It seems more likely that they were genuinely interested and informed people, if rather more academic than some might like. Oh dear, we can't have them informed and academic people interested in our folk music, can we?   There is a thread on folk music and the middle class elsewhere, for those who do think that way.......