I didn't think I would bother to add any more to this very good thread ... I thought that I'd already said whatever it was I could say of any value. But today, I chanced into a long and meaty, discussion with another serious folk musician, who also has a plus 20 year history with this festival.

I had expressed my frustration with the current product ... (note the marketing term) ... and yet I was a little surprised by the depth of his frustration and anger. He made an interesting point, one that certainly rang true with me:

It's really been since the advent of the "Folk Festival Promotors" ... meaning those who went to college and got degrees in folk festival production management ... that these problems have occured.

This NF Folk Festival had strong local roots. It was started with the locals, and for the first years, it was just fine: workshops, concerts, jam sessions, good clean healthy family fun.

Then came the promoters ... crafts, food venders, cops, crowd controll, diminishing parking for the performers, and worst of all ... the bringing in of "professional performers who were not local." At this point, the festival became a different animal, one that was way beyond local controll.

I just spent some time perusing this years schedule of performances and workshops. I was very, very dissapointed to see just how FEW performances I would personally attend. I get more quality "FOLK MUSIC" in one month in peoples living rooms than I can now get in four days of this so called "folk music festival!"

It's so sad ... what happened! Bob(deckman)Nelson