I'm sorry but I don't think that the main priority of folk fans should be to attract 'young people' into folk - and especially not by dumbing it down in order to make it more 'acceptable'. I find this attitude to be not only patronising and insulting to me and my contemporaries but it is also patronising and insulting to young people.

I have to agree with a lot of what Ruth Archer has written above, especially:

"I think the Folk Police are a myth. What I DO think is that when you go into any community with which you are not familiar, there are certain rules of engagement. Firstly, you do a lot more listening than talking for an awfully long time. You accept that you can learn a lot from the people around you, and you ingest that knowledge -"

Spot on, Ruth!

I also agree with RA's comments with regard to Eliza Carthy. Now there is an artist who is steeped in the tradition and is making a determined and credible effort to move it forward (it's debatable whether it needs moving forward - but there you go!). I don't necessarily like everything that Ms. Carthy does but I have enormous respect for her and I watch what she does with interest. If more of the younger people coming into folk were like Ms. Carthy, I, for one, would probably not be such a 'grumpy old git'!