The denial that prices can be barriers is absurd..
If your venue charges one penny and I have no pennys I cant get in or eat there or drink there.

One sees the argument- if you really like the music you will spend what it takes- unless of course you dont have what it takes.

I dont deny that folk music may be cheaper than other things the question is why dont we make it as cheap as possible rather than take any excuse for ripping people off?

How rich can a person's experience with folk music be?
The definition of folk has nothing to do with this discussion.

Definitions are created for narrow purposes of analysis and problem solving and communication. There is never a one size fits all definition.

It is impossible to recreate the past but we do have a treasury of artifacts from the past. Our task is to carry those things through time to the best of our ability.

If we are to honor the productions of the past we have to make significant room for them. That means working out a compromise with the productions, tastes and sensitivities of the present

The range of artfacts in our care is large- lyrics, tunes, instruments, recipes, costumes......practices, rituals and complex arrangements of things- seasonal celebrations.

It is simply efficient to suggest that folk experiences be as rich as possible. Why should events be music only, masquerade only or food only. I am a member of a German church that thinks that food is most important- I keep telling them that they have lost their music! Which is true- scarcely a one of them knows the songs to go with the beer and bratwurst.

yes you can simply do music but I think that is being excessively narrow. One can not live by bread alone, or just music or just costumes.

The people of the past lived as we do lives which can be measured by variables. The end product will be a spectrum with some concentrations here and there along the line.

We are not tasked to re create an average or an extreme as we can recreate nothing. Our job is to tolerate all configurations and to maximize access and maximize integration into the lifeway. It has to be as open as possible, cheap as possible and transmit as much as possible as oppose to entertain.

There is a role for the professional capitalist but I dont have to defend the status quo especially where a configuration which provides for more transmission and accessibility can be demonstrated.

Just because you like it is no reason to continue on the path.

There is no reason what so ever to claim that people have evolved beyond the point of no return and can no longer choose to make music a part of their daily lives rather than serve only as audience
But we need this on many levels- baking, cooking, singing, playing, making physical artifacts.....and on and on.

Conrad