A thought, a question:

A hypothetical Folk Festival has to satisfy some basic requirements to survive. Do these requirements influence the nature and the type of music performed at that festival.

ie: Large festivals may more capacity to put on "unknown acts" and give those acts more time (in the three important areas of: 1)on stage band setup time. 2)performance time. 3)time to get of the stage.

I contend that the two elements mentioned above (money and time) are proportional to music diversity at folk festivals. Such imperitives (make money to survive and keep stage downtime to a minimum) are "mainstreaming" folk music.

I am interested in music that is out the mainstream. Anyone else out there? Anyone else experience time and money problems (from a performers point of view)at folk festivals??

Anyone out there who play in "large" ensemble? What are your experiences in the following:

1).Gaining acceptance of your applications to perform 2)Getting mainstage timeslots 3)Getting sufficientsetup time, performance time, and pull-down time?

Or do you have to do a "scaled down version" of your act at Festivals.

Is such "scaling down" a good thing?