I think where you have a consonant crowd, sharing the same acoustic "space", you have a stronger festival. The danger (from my POV) is that two or more such "spaces" dissipates the unity.

People who come for "folk rock" will mostly (in my experience) not leave to investigate traditional music, and vice versa. So you have two acoustic "spaces".(Paul, I suspect you're a rare bird, in liking both).

An example of a consonant crowd? Mystic Seaport Sea Festival. I have no knowledge of UK equivalents, and I'm sure there's many. But where?

Jon Bartlett