Hi,

Just browsing this thread. There seems to be a lot of comments about unworthy winners such as Donovan and also some of the presenters. Whilst I agree they were not wholly appropriate to folk music, especially Donovon, I think we have to take note that without these "bigger names" it would have been very hard for the BBC to get funding to televise this event. Obviously times are hard and cuts are being made so I think we're lucky that our humble genre of music got a whole 2 and a bit hours of footage via the BBC (I know I know, it should be on every day). But yes, back to my original point- without the likes of Donovan and Frank Skinner, I doubt the funding for this would have been as high and thus it would not be televised to the masses. The folk awards may seem like a bit of a fix but I do think it's great it's given folk music some good exposure and also, introduced folk music to some of the public who may not have been introduced before.