Conrad, somewhere in your incoherent ramblings I can pick out a vague sense of what your getting at. But you keep presenting these things without explaining why you think the benefits you claim will arise. You seem to think they're self-evident - well they're not. So humour us and explain.

cross the board donations- all volunteer or none . That's a political and social philosophy. If you want to run an event that way, fine, but what difference does it make to the music?

wtf do you mean by "generalised emphasis"?

the living tradition is the most important part of folk music ... We would be more secure if it were widespread. More secure in what way? What does this mean?

We all agree it would be good to increase access to folk music. It's just that none of us recognise the things you object to as being barriers. But access to what? If all there is to access is small-scale events with the bare minimum of facilities offering performances of unpredictable quality, why should people bother? More importantly, how is this an improvement on the present system where as well as events like these, people have a choice of something better, albeit at more cost?

The problem is that you are focussed on cost without considering value. In your concept, people simply gather sitting on the ground in small groups in a field to listen to different performers. Never mind that it's raining, and they can't hear because the wind is blowing, and the performers are rubbish anyway. It may be free, but what sort of "folk experience" is that? An event where there is shelter and a PA and professional performers may provide a much better experience, which is much more likely to make people return, and if people have to pay a few pounds/dollars most of them will think it better value than the free alternative.

Serve yourself and never pay for service. That's a fine slogan, but it undermines thousands of years of human progress, which is based on people specialising in things they are good at. No one has the skills to do everything, so they pay others to do things they can't, and sell their own skills. I don't have the skills to mend my car, so I pay a mechanic - in return he may pay me to play music. We'll both get better results than if we tried to do them ourselves. Why is that bad?