A recent example of folk which has been commercially successful is Riverdance. A massive international hit for 15 years, with three separate companies touring in America, Asia and Europe, it's been seen by over 2 billion people on TV alone. However to achieve that it has had to create a show which takes it a long way from what I suspect most of us here would regard as authentic folk.

That's the trade-off. Folk works best in small intimate venues. Even medium-sized theatres put up a barrier between the performer and audience. For a performance to work in larger venues it has to be turned into a spectacle, which just takes it further away from what folk really is. It's hard to imagine most folk acts performing in a huge stadium - Bellowhead just possibly, but they're hardly typical of most folk acts.