I attend three "festivals" a year:NCBS Good Old-Fashioned Bluegrass Festival,San Francisco Folk Music Club Free Folk Festival, and Western Workers Labor Heritage Festival. The broadest range of music is probably at the SFFMC event, but all three are characterized in large part by participatory music. I do a lot of singing along at all three. I don't recall running into anyone being snotty at any of the three. And I am passionately fond of all three.

I'm not a performer, but I am a participant. I've been listening to, singing, and trying to play bluegrass, old-timey, folk, gospel, labor, mountain, and country (I'm sure I left something out)almost all my life. I appreciate Barbara Shaw's comments. Let's try to look for the things that unite us. (Lord, that sounds like a Dubya slogan: sorry.)