My worst experience (and very nearly my last because of it)was at a singaround at Holmfirth Folk Festival a few years ago. I got relieved of £4 at the bar to get into a side room with nowhere to sit or stand that wasn't in front of singers, had to endure some t**t standing next to me singing all the choruses half a tone flat and people shushing whenever anyone even took a swig of their beer.(if my memory serves me right, it was being run by someone from Shoddy Doggie) I tend to go with Pied Piper in that when I was growing up and drinking in Cornwall, in you were any good, people listened.
Alex