If your interest is in the traditional side and you want more participation why not go to some "song and ale" style festivals to get yourself more well known and get the feel of things a bit more?

Such as?

I got into this stuff relatively recently - too recently for my family to have any taste for it; I don't think I'm going to be able to interest my wife in a musically-oriented activity holiday in Sidmouth (or Whitby) any time soon.

I went to the Young Uns' Headland festival this year & had an amazing time - very much 'folk and ale', wall-to-wall singarounds. What else is there like that? I've seen a couple of weekend fests advertised & been tempted, only to find on closer inspection that they were mostly concerts, mostly singer-songwriter or both.