Saturday evening, I went to a kitchen party near Edmonton, Alberta. The participants included a 70+ish piano-accordian player, a nearly 64-year-old-guitar strummer/howler (me), a 20-something-year-old fiddle player, two 20-something-year-old ukulele players (school teachers) and three other 40-50ish-year olds on the guitar, banjo, bodhran, harmonica and African drum. We played a wide variety of music non-stop for over four hours. At 1:30 am, when I set off on the hour-long drive home, they were still going strong. When traditional/folk music was played (including strathspeys), all who could follow joined in enthusiastically, including the young-uns. Based on what I hear from the young people I know around here, folk/trad music will survive, perhaps not exactly in the same form we know it, but it will survive as it has survived through the generations that came before us. Every time I play or speak about traditional music to younger people, the ones who know music (those who are mesmerised by what the suits tell them is the flavour of the minute don't get it), I come away filled with hope for the future of trad/folk music.