"but things are very different over here."
I'm well aware of how things are over there; I spent 30 odd years singing at and helping run clubs there, that's why I still bother.
"but the real 'folk' are much more democratic and will use the word 'folk' in its widest sense."
The real folk don't give a toss and don't use the word in any sense. We never cross their minds and they certainly have no concept of what happens at clubs and festivals; that's why ball's in our court and why it's up to us to get it right - whatever right is. It certainly isn't junior schoolyard "finger-in-ear" name-calling.
Jim Carroll