But my feeling, Dick, and I think it's also the feeling of John Adams from what he's said, is that so many dedicated organisations have emerged who can do the job really well. Yes, festivals promote folk dance and song, but surely when EFDSS were doing it there simply weren't that many festivals or festival organisations around? So they were filling a certain gap. Now that there are something like 350 folk festivals in the country every year, why does EFDSS need to do one? What would it accomplish? It would be one amongst many.

Plus many of those organisations have year-round teams devoted to doing that job well...if EFDSS was doing that, wouldn't it detract from their ability to do other things?

I'm also not sure about the commercially viable part. Most festivals I've ever been involved with aimed to pay for themselves - cover the staffing costs, arrtists, and infrastructure. Any leftover cash (if there is any) usually gets re-invested into the following year's event. So the idea that this might prove to be a revenue stream for the society seems unlikely. Running one-off events and concerts would present similar issues in terms of whether they'd actually generate new revenue, and whether the amount generated would make it worthwhile...So again, I'd wonder what the point was.

There's also the issue of these events presumaby taking place at C# House, and feeding into that sense of London-centricity which is off putting in terms of attracting new members in the regions.

As I said earlier, I think the society (and this is purely a personal opinion) would do well to be working on a more strategic level: trying to attract large-scale funding for the House and VWML to improve the facilities and turn it into a signnificant national resource; raising the profile of traditional artforms with the DCMS, trying to get some long-term financial support and acknowledgement; and partnering delivery organisations in the regions, moving toward a cohesive national strategy for education and development.

Well, that's what I'd do if somebody died and made me king. :)