Ok so it's "thread creep" but...
There are a couple of issues that are being repeated here and are at leastworth trying to discuss:
1. Lots of people mention money as if that is the factor behind my choice not to go to concerts/buy weekend tickets. That isn't the case, I could easily pay for a ticket and not use it: in fact like "retired" I have done exactly that in the past. What is important for me is that sense of community from being in sessions and singarounds, the idea that lots of people have lots to contribute. It's one of the (many) things that makes the folk scene so appealing to me. I don't like the artificial barrier between "artist" and "audience" that a concert setting promotes. I prefer the spontaneity and intimacy od good sessions; and I love the sheer joy of someone sitting unobtrusively all day/night then producing a moment of pure beauty that makes everyone think how privileged they've been to hear it.

2. Alcohol has been mentioned a lot too. It is present of course and sometimes prominent but the implication is that because of it, sessions tend to be a drunken rabble.
Sorry Ray, ("If you wish to simply spend your time boozing and singing and playing to your circle of friends,fine but it does get boring!") whilst I agree that a closed insular session of drunks isn't much fun for everyone else' most sessions I've been to, esecially singing ones, seem to be very welcoming and not excesively Bachanalian.


A
If I knew how to start a thread, I just might do that for this..