Great idea indeed, Bill. Don't stay a guest, btw, come and join the madhouse...;-)

I dunno how it works there in the US but I would love to find out. The issue I have always had here in the UK whenever I have tried to get other groups involved is A) Finding them and B) affording them! Ours isn't a tradition - just a small music festival but I do look for diversity where I can. We can get a Morris team for expenses usualy. When we asked for a Bhangra dance troup they were asking hundreds of pounds! To a little festival like ours it does make it difficult. I suspect the same is true of the little regional traditional festivals like Padstow and Bacup.

There was only one occasion when we managed to get a bit of variance. We got extra funding from the arts council and managed to book a Ghanaan story teller and a Ukrainian dance troup. If the 'powers that be' could do something about creating ethnic diversity in this way rather than just criticising we may be well on the way to racial harmony:-)

Cheers

DtG