The solidarity of our UK members has been very apparent to me as long as I've been hanging out regularly here at the Mudcat, and I've long been more-or-less envious of what seems to be a proliferation of folk clubs, regular sessions and song circles, etc., available to our UK Folk.

On the other hand, I've certainly been aware of a fairly constant stream of complaints about such issues as the absense of folk music on BBC radio and TV, and the trend of festivals to book high-profile pop acts, thereby drawing crowds with little or no interest in "real" (i.e.,, traditional) folk music.

I remember the last couple of Newport Folk Festivals here in the US, where the headline attractions were rock bands, and true folk afficianados were few and far between among the large and unruly audiences. *Some* Mudcatters' accounts of the largest UK "folk" festivals had given me the impression that something similar was happening there today. Yes? No?

I think it's safe to say that, on both sides of the ocean (although perhaps to different degrees), folk music culture is no longer the pervasive cultural phenomenon that it was in the early-to-mid 1960s. However, that's not necessarily a bad thing; the current semi-underground/grass-roots position is probably more fitting and more typical for folk culture and/or "bohemian" culture ~ it's the earlier situation, the "folk scare" or "craze" of '62-'68, that was the historical abberation.