An article by Colin Irwin in the current bemoans the predictability, the safeness, of being "geared towards the mainstream" etc. etc. of the folk awards.

... and I can't help feeling that he has been reading my widespead objections to the whole process when he writes:-

This wasn't right, said the dissenters. In whichever strange way you choose to define it, they said, folk music shouldn't be about judgement and trophies and music industry garlands, it was about real people making real music in an honest, heartfelt fashion with no relevance to prizegiving ceremonies.