Some great comments.

My main interest is access of audiences to music- the more access the more opportunity for transmission and inspiration of new works.

When venues hire people from far away, nothing wrong with it, expenses rightfully occur. It just costs.

What do you do with such expenses?

Seems to me that there are a few ways to deal with it.

-performer (who is generally making a profit from local gig costs lowers the inital fee to absorb some of the travel fee so that the gig does not cost entire local fee plus entire travel cost.

-venue operator- who is making significant profit lowers his or her profit on the out of town gig and perhaps a few subsequent local ones to absorb the cost of transportation making costs to patrons the same or only very slightly higher.

If these sort of things are not done one limits accessibility of the music via increasing costs and barring those without the means to pay.

One could go with what the market would stand however when one goes over that pricepoint the venue and the performer are out. While the venue may spring back they often just close and performers hang it up.

So going to the market's breaking point limits access as prices climb and soon no one can turn up.

Careful strategies it seems to me will help minimize limits of access to the music and traditions.

I don't think they are being utilized now.
But rather one fee is laid on the other and although a certain segment of the population is able to afford to attend a much larger segment is increassingly locked out- via economic discrimination.

This situation is very much like the Irish Potato Famine- its underlying cause was the reliance of a large population on a mono crop. The Potato. Once that crop failed there was nothing else.

This is happening now in the music biz. Especially Opera and classical music but I am seeing it in folk as well. Venues, cultural institutions have cultivate the wealthy elites at the expense of loosing middle class and lower income folks. Once the elites are hit by hard times there is no other group that can afford the artifically inflated costs that only the welthy elite could pay.

If more diverse populations could afford to attend there would be more stability. Venues would make up with volume that which they would loose in higher priced fees.

Another issue that I have seen in the artcar world is that importation of talent sucks the energy and motivation out of local talent and keeps the pool of locals growing. Over professionalization is making ordinary folk believe that they are unworthy so discourages participation.

Yes Folk conventions- one recent one in the USA costparticipants around $300 just to register not including travel, hotels, food....
As I said somewhere- If you tell me you can afford that I am not putting money in your tip jar. You should tip me for going into credit debt to attend and keep you at it.

I have nothing against professional musicians who are wonderful and probably under paid and under respected however, there are many players and dimensions of the market that also have to be considered.

Conrad