If folk is the music then it's in rude good health on the right side of the pond. Rachel Unthank, Mawkin Causley, Bellowhead, Kate Rusby draw in large numbers, many of whom one wouldn't suspect of liking historical acoustic music (awaits definitioneering). The crowds are certainly in the festival and touring circuit. If that encourages people to pick up an instrument and learn some old tunes, so much the better.

If by scene you're looking for folk's Haight-Ashbury, a community of lifestyle folkies you may be disappointed. There was a record in the seventies called, 'part time punks'. What we have now is part-time folk.