John P that was wonderful- gainfully employed what a riot! You are the poster child for the crowd that wants to limit the spread of folk music!
You want to keep out the unemployed. Shame on you.

You can dance anywhere. Go to a park and dance Generally people do lots of things in parks, sing dance play guitars no one minds generally. Generally when money is involved this becomes problematic. But simply arrange for groups of people to meet in public spaces. Easy.

Another classic John P- people who drink at a high level of moderation are alcoholics. Yes that is the view of the anti drink neo prohibitionists it is simple discrimination and that is wrong.

You need to read of the history of drink in western culture. I am an academic and folk musician....nothing wrong with knowing things and with folk culture our obligation is to take care of it and know some things. So John P- your argument is for mindlessness. Not good.

John- learn of the lives of the people that made the music- then you will find out that your views of it stifle it.

Thank you thesnail- Mari Lwyd is welsh. We will do the entire ritual this year complete with horse skull head and music and recitations should be great.

Wassail well get my 900 page book on the subject or maybe my short guide do the wassail. Wassail is an ancient and complex custom. No one culture owns it.

The Christmas bull- goes out with wassailers enters house runs through and out again. Much fun. We now have a proper bull skull costume.

Yes the memory fails me but it was a while back. Nothing wrong with requesting a song however- musicians get upset because they dont know enough songs. Yes part of the trade off for volunteerism is occasionally mentioning your pet project but I am quite certain I never introduced a welsh choir. I drive at festivals all the time. I have a perfect driving record. Skll may allow for greater speeds. But then why talk about me here- I know....you are loosing the argument!

We need to free folk music not continually state that change is not necessary just because we "like" things as they are.

Liking it or having done it for years is no reason to stop change. Accessibility is important and it is easy to find out if the arrangements employed limit or extend it. Simple! And no excuse for limiting in any way the access to folk music and traditions.

Conrad