folksong has always been about joining in, but in the appropriate places, look at the format of some of the oldest ballads that have a line and then a line to join in with.
it is not moronic to get an audience to participate,Jim, you clearly are uninformed about performing, neither is it moronic to turn the first verse or any verse of a song into in effect a chorus, if the performer wants people to join in,AS LONG AS IT DOES NOT MAKE A NONSENSE OF THE SONG.
A poem that i set music to.. Sailortown, i used one of the verses as a chorus it was a non narrative song, as a performance it works well.As a performer what matters are that you perform well, and the audience enjoy themselves if they are enjoying themselves by joining in and is not detrimental to my performnce,I do not have a problem, it is easy enough for a performer to say in a pleasant way you can join in, or this one is better without etc. Folk song is not opera neither is it going to the cinema, it is about people enjoying themselves.
a good performer should be aware of the audience and be able to encourage or discourage certain things in a pleasant way, it is up to the performer
the only problem I have ever had was when i was booked at the folk club in cecil sharp house,and some fllor singer decided to join in with his concertina ,the problem was he was playing a completely different set of chords, yes, jim that sort of thing is out of order.   by the way your anti english remark was racist and unecessary, in ireland this sort of thing is sometimes mistakenly done by tourists of many different nationalities, it is in a different situation to the guest perfomer booked in folk club, it can be irritating if the person joining in is incompetent,on the other hand i have ha great musicians call in and play because it is an open session, but it is the problem of the irish tourist industry who give the impression that all sessions are free for alls.
so we have 2 different situations, tourists coming to ireland and being under the impression they can join in regardless of whether they know the music, and people in england paying to get in to a folk club and joining in,they are two different situations and both can be dealt with tact fully.
Jim, the word radical means getting to the root of the problem ,singling out english folk club visitors as the proplem is not accurate, the problem is the nature of an open session it is open to anyone, if you dont want an oipen session play in your own house with invited guests, a public house is a public house it is open to the public , if you dont like it set up to your own house session, but dont come on here putting the blame on english people.