Well i have been going to Whitby Folk Week since '91 since i was born that is! This meaning i am one of the few "young" folkies. People are always complaining about there not being enough young people being involved or even knowing about folk. Scratch Morris is a good way of getting those much needed young people involved, it gives them something fun to watch. Morris is fine yeh it's some odd but normal part of my life but it get's so boring (no offence meant) and so Scratch Morris uplifts it a bit and it's a laugh. It's what young people want to see not middle aged men jumping about with hankies boring people we want to see some fun. SO they shouldn't have "gate crashed" but who cares since when were folk festivals so uptight. Let people get involved. As long as they consult some one on the management team that's all that really matters if they're hopeless well good for them it's given us something to laugh at and it shows anyone can do it, whether they're good or not they've shown bravery and courage and guts which is more than a lot of us! I danced with a well known clog team (the Newcastle Cloggies) since i could stand up and there were many festivals they would perform at when there were loads of them but all of a sudden people left for one reason or another and they didnt perform. I currently dance with a rapper team at school. We're taught by Ricky Forster of the High Spen Blue Diamonds, the world of rapper owes an awful lot to him and yet my team are still not that great but we go out and perform when ever we can. We've danced at the festival in Hexham for young people for the last 2 years. This year we totally mucked our first spot up but has that stopped us... has it hell we're just as strong now if not stronger, we got back into the step prefectly fine and then carried on from there in the same spot we lost a pair of glasses, a badge and a sash but our Tommy got them out of the way. After the dance people came up to us including David Oliver who was playing for us and they all commented on how good we were by carrying on a lot of people at tha point would just have ran off stage but no not us we carried on and thats what made the show and my day just knowing we could do that. I have been doing rapper since i was 3 and so i knew i would manage if we went wrong however 2 members of the team had only been dancing a month and they still did it. My point is that whether your good or not get out there and do your thing. It shows what a good performer you are and it entertains people!