Interesting response from the Seattle Times.
The editorial does not address the real problem,
that the festival has changed drastically from its roots
as a folklore/folkmusic festival to a rowdy carnival atmosphere
where anything and everything goes for the greatest number of people.
The letter to the editor suggests charging admission.
I'm not sure that is the solution.
Getting back to its roots would be,
But I don't think that will happen.

Cheers, S. in Seattle

From the Seattle Times Editorial Page, 5/28/08

Editorial - Seattle Times 5/28/0
Keeping Folklife open and secure

Seattle's Northwest Folklife Festival, famous for being free and welcoming to all comers, ought to do something out of character: Folklife should switch from a completely open Seattle Center campus to one with gated security entrances.

Such security may not have stopped a 22-year-old man with a concealed-weapons permit who is suspected of injuring three people at the festival last weekend. But a higher level of protection would work in the way that random, thorough checks at airports discourage certain behavior. Festivalgoers mindful that they face spot checks would think twice before bringing guns.

Letter to the editor, 5/28/08: "'We can't change Folklife,' they said. But Folklife had already changed." No surprises here.

The recent violence at the Northwest Folklife Festival doesn't surprise me. I used to attend every year, and performed there many times, too. Then, about 10 years ago, the event really changed. Since it was free, many people came who didn't care at all about the music.

People came to hustle the crowd for money, while the rest of us, both amateurs and professionals, always performed for free. A women in the audience started hitting her kids while I was playing there once, and nearly everyone left.

I begged the Folklife board to start charging people to attend the festival, as Bumbershoot did. I told them that no unauthorized performers should be panhandling for money. (Even at Pike Place Market, where I have played many times, performers had to get a license.) They refused.

"We can't change Folklife," they said.

But Folklife had already changed.

Maybe now, the organizers will rethink what they have allowed the festival to become, and stop the damage before it's too late.

— Alan Moen, Entiat

See the current thread on NW Folklife/Seattle