There are several of them around and until I learned better I fell foul of a couple of them. They are the sanitized, colourful sickly-quaint national costume display events with formalized ethnic dancing which have little to do with what I recognise as folk music.

Sheffield City Morris have performed at a couple of these French festivals.

They are indeed as you describe - except the teams get paid generous travelling expenses, and are given the European food mountain to eat and wine lake to drink. The accommodation is often excellent and the interface between the teams in the background can be spectacular. (I especially remember a team from French Guiana whose idea of a rum punch was to pour high-proof rum in to a huge container and wave an orange at it). That was at a festival in Manosque - I think, it became a blur after a while.

I would take issue with the "formalised ethinic dancing" to a certain extent yes - but some of the teams we have seen have been superb with great musicinas all of whom were up for a session the minute the audience had gone. The East Europeans tend to be ex-state sponsored teams - but the South Americans we have performed with have been a great bunch.

And we got an invite to Ecuador out of one of them.