"drink at a high level of moderation" Now that's a phrase I must remember!

Mari Lwyd is Welsh, as has already been pointed out, and is a different and separate tradition from wassailing. I'd never heard of the bull's head Christmas custom Conrad refers to but google tells me that in Romania:

carol-singers are sometimes accompanied by bogeys known as brezaia, capra or turca—that is, men with the head of a goat or bull and a long beak which claps now and again, when pulled by a string. They go from house to house, and dance and recite verses, mostly of a satirical turn

Conrad seems happy to mix traditions from various unrelated cultures - hardly "authentic". And I'd be interested to know the traditional authority for the Mayday "green bike".

I happen to be one of the unemployed Conrad is so concerned about. I am no way deterred from attending folk events by the price of beer. Tonight I shall be visiting this nearby pub to play music where the beer is £2.45 a pint (imperial) - $3.85 - which is cheap compared with many places in the UK. No doubt Conrad would regard this as expensive. We go there because we are made welcome, we enjoy the beer, the atmosphere of a 300 year old pub. And because musicians have been doing so for at least 30 years to my personal knowledge. The price of beer is not a consideration.