Midchuck

OBWTFAT?
Anyway, we worked hard to brainwash our daughter. We dragged her to festivals, concerts, workshops, jams, for years. She tried to escape, but she is now a kick-butt fiddler and backup guitar player of the gods.

GUEST,
Actually festivals have been around forever. What seems to change is the audience. Clifftop is quite new. Been going less than 20 years. But the WV State Folk Festival at Glenville has been around since 1950 and Galax is older than that.

What we geezers have seen is the following pattern. Many many years ago the festivals were full of kids, us. As we got older most of the kids at the festivals were ours. As our children grew up and started having lives and interests of their own, they stopped coming to our festivals. For a while kids were very rare at festivals and we assumed that interest in the music would die with us. But now the kids are back. Some of them are our kids returned like the prodigal son, but many are strangers. They're teens (and even younger) and 20 somethings who have sort of appeared out of nowhere. We're happy but mystified.

Ely,
I'm pretty generous in my definition of folk, but on Mudcat it sometimes pays to be reticent in order to avoid definitional fire-fights.

With your background you're a perfect example of the sort of "kid" (with all due respect. To me anybody under 30 is a "kid") I am NOT surprised to see at places like Clifftop. What surprises me are the people your age and younger who don't share the blessings of your parents' enlightened views on child-rearing. Where did they come from?

alanabit,
"are there still old blokes out there in the country pubs who know folk songs"
In the states, definitely yes. Melvin Wine (WV fiddler), who died this year would've been 94 this April. Our own Jean Ritchie is still going strong.
What's really interesting is watching the people who as kids learned from the old blokes many years ago assume the old bloke mantle. Not all are willing to admit that yes, now they're the old folks.

Shonagh
"there are some totally fantastic players and singers out there"
Got that right. They'll be kicking geezer butts in contests for years to come.

WYSIWYG,
You're right. The young people I know who are into old time music don't think of themselves as folkies. But if I remember correctly, once I made the move to old time music decades ago, I stopped thinking of myself as a folkie.