I have no problem with peoples' access to any sort of music, I have a problem with disproportionate access to one thing over another. I studied classical music at A-level, and oddly that didn't kill a lifelong love for its many forms!
A national free festival in our most famous venue should have some representation of the many kinds of national and international music that we have, and not favour anything over anything else. I am very, very suspicious of people who roll out ancient and irrelevant cliches to support their arguments. It's like resorting to mentioning Hitler in a debate-the minute anyone says the phrase "finger in the ear" or anything to do with what folkies wear or what they look like or that no-one could possibly want to listen to a vast, many-faceted genre of music I am afraid I immediately assume I'm dealing with someone that really hasn't thought things through, or who perhaps is clinging to one idea to justify initial rudeness, which is, by the way, fine. I don't think you're entirely wrong Steve, my knowledge of the history of the Proms is limited-I just don't like being insulted from the outset of a discussion.
   My article was not about someone like you that loves both the Classical and folk art forms, it was about the average person on the street that has no access to our folk music at all and who will now have the chance to have that, for free, at one of our most famous arts festivals. If you react to perceived patronisation by committing the same crime it makes you look petty. Maybe I just did that! Oops. Going now. Sorry if I offended you, but I'm not an idiot and I honestly thought the beginning of the article qualified my position at the end.
Thanks everyone for your support. I have no doubt, because I've spent plenty of time around this forum, that you all would have ripped me to shreds if you had thought I was out of order.
eliza