Here in NZ I think it was a little different - the growth of Coffee Bars (no music allowed in pubs, which closed at 6pm anyway) and academics who had been overseas after WW2 and brought back ideas and records which were introduced to students in the late 50s/early 60s. Yes, we started with guitars and skiffle, also Kingston trinity and the Weavers. Hank Walters, an American working in Wellington, had a great collection of folk records and would hold regular parties where he handed out song sheets for everyone to join in.
Mary Seddon ran a coffee bar in Wellington called Monde Marie and she would hire singers to entertain the patrons.
I joined the Teacher's Training College Folk Club and we listed to Hank's records and learnt songs which were mostly American, often protesting against segregation or nuclear weapons or wars and fighting. The University Folk Club followed a similar path and in 1965 the first Wellington Folk Festival was held. All the singers were locals or people from overseas who had come here to live.
Overseas singers such as William Clauson, Nina and Frederik and Elizabeth Schwarzkopf had toured NZ in the 50s but in 1964 someone brought out Judy Collins, Josh White, the Smother's Brothers and Bud and Travis for a concert in the Town Hall. Wonderful!
It became fashionable to go to the coffee bars, to sit chatting in a smokey dimly lit room (with white string criss-crossing a black ceiling). The Chez Paree and the Balladeer were the other two that offered folk music but the Balladeer closed in November 1967 and Mary closed the Monde in 1970 - possibly because NZ had voted to allow pubs to stay open until 10pm.
From about 1968 the Folk Song Cellar recordings were played on National Radio - at around midnight on Saturdays and that exposed our singers to a wealth of British material which was quickly added to our repertoire.
In 1969/70 several Wellington clubs (Kapiti, Port Nick, Wellington FC) combined to form the Folk Centre and a suitable venue was found to house various activities - concerts, workshops, parties, Morris dancers and even a wedding (ours) in 1984.
But music promoters stopped being interested in folkies in the 70s and "folk music" was no longer 'the fashion'. Although the folk festivals were growing bigger, the clubs were growing smaller - the people who had run them for years got tired of doing all the work and 'new blood' wasn't so keen to take on a thankless task each week.   
A few pubs become open to having music and with alcohol now available to singers and listeners, the coffee bars lost their folk patrons.
Wellington Folk Centre struggled to pay the rent and eventually closed in the late 1980s.
Today the Devonport Folk Club in Auckland is probably the biggest (and best) folk club in the country but many pubs around NZ have weekly music sessions, attracting all kinds of music and performers from beginners to seasoned regulars with years of folk singing behind them.
Robyn