Reposted to sign.

Robin said, "In my opinion it is helpful to interest younger singers to have some lighter material around and not all the darker, high death count stuff."

That's an interesting perspective. I agree in one sense, that on the instrumental side younger people often seem to gravitate first towards dance music and other higher energy and more upbeat styles. Of course, this might be exaggerated by the fact that in many parts of the UK and Ireland it's often easier to get an audience and maybe even your first paid gig playing ceilidh music or the local equivalent.

I disagree about the songs though. The Young'uns engaged early on with political material which is often not exactly cheery (and so does Alice Jones and so do Granny's Attic all mentioned above). The most successful non-traditional English folk band of recent years (I'm showing my age here) is the Levellers who were politically focussed. This thread, of course, needs some younger people to give their opinions.

The single biggest factor in the unusually successful outreach of my own local session, apart from us being welcoming to younger people, is probably the simple fact we always have a borrowable guitar, and now also a fiddle, so car-free youngsters or students temporarily back from university have the opportunity to join in without lugging an instrument around.