Nothing mecahnical about quality enduring, true enough. But crap does not survive (though often enough what might seems like crap at the time turns out to have been something very different); and "quality" has a tendency to get revived and bounce back to life, years after it's been declared dead and buried.

Anyway, I can't see why the people who don't like what they see as happening to their folk festivals seem so defeatist. We always get people quoting the old saw "If it ain't broke don't fix it", and it's true enough. But the corollary to that is, if is broke, fix it. I've never been to a festival that didn't have a fringe - aside from a few small ones which are all fringe. That's where to start.