Steve, isn't it nice how people in the UK are all flocking to "Occupy Folk Music (USA)? I think they could get a thread for the UK movement, but ours is so wonderful. Come to think about it, we have more similarities than differences, and most of those differences don't matter to the music.

As for 1%ers controlling things... I listen to WUMB, which is better than nothing, but... there I only one show featuring traditional music, and the other shows seem to play the "folk hits". Or, what the programming manager thinks is groovy enough to add to the formulary, and it doesn't seem many new CDs are added. What happens is that you hear the same cuts several times and other folks don't have a chance. It's modeled on top 20 stations. We have shows that are more local to me and feature a wider variety. I think they likely play recordings from their own collections. Luckily, I don't buy records ONLY because someone shoves them in my face.

As for festivals, they can only book less than 1%, but they get more next year and the year after. Folk music is folk music because the 99% sing it, play it, occasionally write it*. What happens on the radio or at festivals or concerts can promote music, ignore it, delight us or piss us off. In the end, it's ours.

We ALREADY occupy folk music. We just maybe have to look around at where we are sometimes, dust the cobwebs out or just knock them off the walls with a great roaring chorus.

* I know what you're thinkin' -- STOP IT. There isn't one traditional song of any stripe alive in the world today that wasn't written by somebody.