Where have all the beginners gone, long time passing?
General mountain dulcimer or music discussions
Here in Ohio, one festival which was fairly large with well-known players traveling to teach there folded before pandemic hit. The people who organized the festival-- a monumental job-- decided to do so no longer. The folks on the committee were all in the over-50 age category.
Also before pandemic hit, another fest which used to be well-attended scaled way back and, I think, the reasons had to do with all the folks doing the work were older people.
Relatively speaking, the population of the mountain dulcimer world is an older population. There are great young people in the mountain dulcimer world yet the bulk of the population of players of which I am aware is a decidedly older population.