Diane:
If ever I think about it (which I try very hard not to), a disparate collection of tie-dye clad, bearded, tankard-wielding weirdos lurches horrendously into view. It is usually accompanied by hordes of noisy small persons sporting fairy wings and playing diablo, with yappy dogs in tow [....] you're looking for untuned instruments plus vocals in entirely unrelated keys cos anything's Good Enough For F*lk, according to them.

Strange... having spent the last week or three in the company of singers and musicians, most of whom would undoubtedly ally themselves with the folk fraternity, in places as diverse as Ditchling, Lewes, Charlwood, Henfield, Wigan, Horwich and Stoke (i.e. East Sussex, West Sussex, Surrey, Lancashire and Staffordshire, for the uninitiated), I found nothing but good musicianship, excellent singing, good fellowship and not a tankard or tie-dye in sight. Apart from the beards, I must have been living in a parallel universe. Perhaps the fairy wings belong to you, Diane.