It's never occurred to me to even think about insurance or GDPR and it's never stopped me doing all those things.

You've confirmed my point. I suspect you're far from being the only organiser who's never thought about these things. When you organise an event, no matter how small and informal, you take on some responsibilities and liabilities, and yet the national organisation for folk dance and song doesn't even mention this.

It is advisable to have public liability insurance, not because a venue asks for it but because if someone were to be injured at an event you organise then you could be held liable (if you're a member of EFDSS you already have PLI).

EFDSS has a membership problem, with only around 2200 individual members. I suspect it has become an organisation for dispensing funding given by other bodies, which probably explains its current direction. In many respects it's become an irrelevance to most people in the folk world, and yet it is the only national body for folk music, and like it or not it speaks on our behalf. Most importantly, it is the custodian of the Library, and even those of us who've nver used it have benefited from the work there of others. That is why I think what it does and what it calls itself should be of interest to the whole folk community, and not just the tiny handful of members.