Will Fly wrote:-
"I would have thought it was clear from my and Vic's description of a recent Brighton session that it is not an issue - and to make it so is just creating a false battleground. "

I would have thought that the point is self evident but let's spell it out:-

* There are some excellent performers on the folk scene and elsewhere, others who are fairly ordinary and some who are pretty dire and always will be. Age does not come into who falls into each category.

* There are some performers inside the folk scene who put a great deal into their performances and delight in what both they and those they admire achieve. There are others who are only concerned with themselves and they become embittered because they think they have not been given the recognition that they feel they deserve. Age does not come into who falls into each category.

* There are some older performers and enthusiasts who think that the young performers lack soul and are too concerned with presentation etc. and miss the point of the music. There are younger performers and others who want to tell those who have been performing for several decades that they know nothing and dismiss them as "old farts" - see above. Both these groups are wrong in their outlook.

I first started going to folk clubs I was still at school. Soon after leaving school I started my own folk club. I met and booked the likes of Packie Byrne, Belle Stewart, Jane Turriff, Bob Copper. I got to know all these people as friends even though they were old enough to be my grandparents. Now I am in my mid-seventies and have watched the likes of Jim Causley, Matt Quinn, the Askews grow up and develop as performers. They are young enough to be my grandchildren yet we always make time to chat to one another when we meet; I have even done quite a number of gigs with Matt.

I could go on but other points would be of a similar nature and would want to emphasise all POSITIVITY in people and regret all NEGATIVITY.
I am not one for quoting sayings or aphorisms but one that I frequently trot out is one that I have heard attributed to John Brunner, William Ralph or as I first heard it attributed to Jean-Jacques Rousseau

There are two kinds of fools. One says, "This is old, and therefore good." And one says, " This is new, and therefore better."