Conrad says :"Performer audience relationships should be minimized in favor of teacher student relationships."

and also: "Quality of performance is not necessary and discourages many. Get rid of performer elitism and exclusivity."

Words fail me. Conrad, your perception of the world, what makes people tick, what constitutes real life and its relationship to real folk and by extension to folk music, what is education and what is entertainment, are all alien to my world. There is no overlap. I had my suspicions, as I followed this thread over the weeks, but your two sentences above prove this conclusively in my book. I would have no chance persuading you of my viewpoint, as you would have no chance persuading me of yours, for the simple reason that we are looking at different worlds.

Have a good life, by your standards. But I hope we never meet. I do not think of myself as elitist, indeed quite the opposite but I would not like to live in your world, because in my view fanatical antisnobbery is simply another kind of snobbery. And neither equate with tolerance.