Obviously different areas of the country will be different but I can tell you that in the South side of Manchester - Sale/Chorlton area, the Folk Scene is thriving.

There is the Chorlton Folk Club which has been going about 6-7 yrs and is very eclectic and has a large number of younger, student types who probably make up about 30% of the audience. This runs weekly.

Then there is The Beech Singaround which is mostly traditional singing with some tunes and is generally older folk who attend. We have just had our 1st Birthday a couple of months ago. This was originally monthly but has now changed to fortnightly.

Also at The Beech is a Beginners Tunes Session each month for budding musicos which is doing very well. Several younger ppl attending there.

And in Sale is the Sale Folk Club, weekly, which has been running for roughly 6 months now and is doing very well. Again mostly middle aged folk there but a few younger ones too.

I have come across several people in middle age who have 'discovered' our folk heritage fairly recently so the point above was well made - its not absolutely necessary to have loads of youngsters coming into the scene since a lot of people come into it a little later in life.

I have also got involved in a Morris side and that is composed of several young women and some older people too. There is also a cross-fertilisation of Morris-Folk going on here.

All in all I would say that the folk scene is far from dead, far from dying. It could use more youngsters for sure but its not by any means a desperate situation.

I myself am in my early fifties by the way, and have come back to the folk clubs after a break of 20 years or so. Perhaps a little more publicity to let people know whats on might help?

Hope that helps.

Ged