Happy New Year to you too, Dick!
but just to clarify, I'm not in the education business, nor do I have any current interest in trawling for gigs in folk clubs or festivals- I never have, in 55 years in the music
What I do these days ( and what I've always done) is to respond to people who ask me to provide some unamplified music at a social occasion- mostly it's a yes & sometimes I get paid & sometimes I'm happy to do it free.
I take that as a compliment, and feel an obligation to give the people as good a time as I can & try & guess what they might like.
If that involves Jingle Bells that's fine by me- as you know, I have my own idea of what music is about & have no interest in excluding anything. -I recall Scan Tester was a great fan of the Seekers.
So although I think there's a lot of phoney 'folk' crap about- no names but the BBC seems to have many of them on their books....there's some good stuff too- ,
However a lot of great songs are impossible on a GD melodeon, so I do what I can...