Thank you, Joe, for your timely intervention. I was about respond to an unkind and insulting post about me but instead I decided to try and bring the focus back to something that might bring minds back to the matter in hand with my posts about Katy Spicer and the English Dance & Song. I am really glad that I stayed my hand because the moderators have seen fit to remove the offensive post.
Finally, on this matter, may it be allowed to remain that two posts by Jim Carroll have been removed today and that I have details of their content. This because I fear their content (or existence) may be disputed in future.

With that I give a loud sigh of relief and hope that this thread had now been rescued and that something like a civilised exchange of views can be resumed.

I'd like to start this by supporting Jack Campin's statements about admission prices at Celtic Connections. He is right to say that they are way beyond the means of younger people. Pensioners as well, I might add. The same, at a lower financial level, goes for folk clubs. A couple living on a pension is not always going to be able to afford 2 x £10 admission plus 4 x £4 drinks from their pensions which as we all know are not keeping pace with inflation.