I think there's something in what Jack Campin said there. There are people who defend blacking up for the wrong reasons, and who have in fact made efforts to hijack English folk traditions for racist reasons.

People who go too far in the context of imposing PC play into the hands of the closet bigots who wax loudest about "PC gone mad" - in fact I suspect that sometimes they may in fact be the same people.

I rather suspect there's an element of getting free publicity for the festival in the way the organisers seem to have announced it publicly, rather than just dropping the word in the ear of the Morris sides who might be affected, advising them that say Green faces would be more welcome.