And "Guest From NW", thanks for your comments. I also agree. As a newcomer to Seattle (moved here from Minnesota 8 yrs ago) I don't know what it was like in the early years, except what I hear from old-timers like Bob Nelson, Don Firth, and others. But it has certainly got too big, commercial and far removed from what I consider folk music (what ever that is). I think it should be a community festival for the people emphasizing folk music from the Pacific NW region. I heard a promo spot on our local folk music radio station last week about Folklife - "come to see the celebration of arts from the Horn of Africa, and come to see all the great international performers." So that's a Pacific NW regional festival? I don't think so. I think it's gotten out of hand and needs to be reinvented in another form.

Cheers, S. in Seattle