I think that in our area the success of community choirs may be contributing to the demise of folk clubs, and singing in pub sessions. Many people are happy to sing in a group but uneasy about performing a solo song, and if what they want is just to join in and sing with others, they'll get a lot more of this in a community choir than in any folk club or session.

Before such choirs were around, you had to be able to read music and often pass an audition to get into a choir, but now anyone can have a go and be singing along with the group right from the start. You don't have to decide what to sing, or improvise a harmony as you might in a folk session, it's all sorted for you. There's also much less reliance on church music as the core repertoire than there is in formal choirs. All this makes a community choir an attractive option for people who just want to have a good sing along with others.

I'm not commenting (yet, anyway) on whether this is a good development or not, just remarking that this is how singing as a community activity seem to have changed over the last 10 or 15 years or so.

Marje