I agree with all of that, Guest, and running through your list of criteria, we can fairly claim to fulfil most of the points. Three things that fall short are:-

1. We have a small clubroom, which will accommodate only thirty people.
2. Because of 1. we are able to generate funds only for occasional guests (about 3 - 4 yearly), though they tend to be high class guests, such as Mundy - Turner, Les Barker, Clive Gregson etc.
3. We are in Kent. I don't think it is generally understood how wide the gulf is between the Northern and Southern folk scenes. It is extremely difficult to start a club with any hope of success down here, and most don't survive their first year. It is also difficult to keep a long established club going, when, like ours, it has been forced to find new venues four times in six years, simply due to a change of pub manager. In the whole of the Medway towns there is only one successful folk club, though there are a number of pubs offering booked guests regularly, where there are NO floor spots at all. In Maidstone there is only my own struggling club, and a monthly one just outside of town. Given the population of these two areas one would expect that these venues would be packed. Not so!

Now I don't believe there are no folkies here, so where do they all go for their music?

Don T.