This is getting ridiculous. Why a carbon-copy thread of the Smothers Brothers Pete Seeger thread?

Conrad is establishing his own set of criteria and trying to ascertain that his opinion is fact. WRONG!!!!!!

"A folk festival./performance is a forum which celebrates music and folklore not as political statement but as a language for expression, discussion and negotiation. "

Who is Conrad to set such a standard?   The history of art, literature AND folklore shows that politics ARE a part of the story. For Conrad to advocate CENSORSHIP of such performances is lunacy.

Why stop at politics? A folk festival should not be used as an expression for violence or incest, so lets remove all Child Ballads. We should also exclude all work songs since that represents a class system and we do not need such controversy.   Let's remove love songs because the songs can be a statement for same sex couples. And lets remove all those foreign songs because nobody knows what they are saying since they aren't speaking good English!   I don't want to hear any religous songs, becaue it promotes something I do not believe in.

I guess that leaves a couple of instrumentals.

Do you not see how stupid this discussion can be?