"matured" to the point where it excludes songs?   Hardly sounds like a scene where people are made to feel welcome. I think I would walk out if something like that were to occur here in a U.S. club.

It is one thing to study folk music and to share some of the treasures contained in the tradition. To make someone feel unwanted because they feel that a song like "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" has meaning and deserves to be shared is simply ignorance.   ALL music has the ability to open doors.

Each year I attend the Old Songs Festival and one of the highlights is the nightly after-concert sing in the Dutch Barn.   People share a variety of songs - I've heard popular tunes like City of New Orleans mixed in with obscure sea chanties, Broadway show tunes, and great Appalachian ballads. The simple art of people SHARING music is a way to find the pure joy in folk music.

I hope that we never come to the point where we become exclusionary.