A 'living tradition' has some tradition to it other than the tradition of the music biz. I don't think the problem is that there are singer/songwriters. I think the problem is that's ALL there are. WUMB probably drives the festival and they've gone to a unpopular pop format for much of their programming. Still have good stuff and plenty of singer songwriters I like, but they also go over the edge far enough to make me turn the radio off sometimes. (And I've just noticed Tom Nelligan's post above and agree 100%.)

It probably would be better if they did re-name the festival. Music festival, singer/songwriter festival, songwriters' showcase or Boston Songsmiths, 2008. Something that wouldn't attract people who mistakenly believed it was a folk festival.