"There will be a new generation that won't be exposed to this music at all at the festivals in the summer, and they'll maybe, possibly discover it by chance some day on recordings or somewhere else."

Arnie, I'm more hopeful than that. If we look back at the "folk revival", we can see that much of this music we call "traditional" was really ignored by the public at large during the early part of the 20th century. The work of dedicated musicologists was only in the realm of academia until about the 1940's when others took up "the cause".   English harmony chorus singing IS a thing of the past,as is shanty singing, square dancing and other forms of the folk tradition - but it is kept alive by people who have developed a keen interest.

That interest will continue, but there needs to be a "spark" of some sort for it to ignite in a larger fashion. I'm not sure if there will be another folk revival to match the one that peaked in the 1960's, but the interest will remain.

The issue comes back to presenters who have the foresight or know how to expose others to it. It also comes back to performers who know how to do the same. The bottom line is that we are talking about commercial acceptance here, not the lineage of folk music itself.