This music exists to entertain a few friends and not for performance and it can happen anywhere, any time and I think it's wonderful for that reason.

This can be said of any music really; I've enjoyed many such informal musical soirees with folkies, brass players, choral singers, Classical players, jazzers and one memorable evening trying to play in a Viol Consort. I've been part of fireside ceilidhs with exalted singers, stortellers and folk musicians in which we sang anything but folk songs - great fun!

So that tells us about what people do some of the time. What becomes of Folk Music when it does become about more formal performance? Or does True Folk Music preclude that? But all music has its formal & informal aspects; all music has a social side, but all music isn't Folk...