I would consider hosting a house concert except that one problem worries me: If you advertise it to the public, how do you know someone won't come who will then rip you off? I recall reading a thread where somebody reported this happening: the hostess finding a stranger rummaging through her closet. On the other hand, if you don't advertise, how do you get the word out, and how do you make sure enough people will come to make it worthwhile?

It seems to me, to host a successful house concert, you'd have to be pretty well connected in the folk music field, i.e. know a lot of people in your community who are heavily into folk music. I probably know a dozen people like that (I mean, people whose names and phone numbers are in my address book), and I bet I couldn't count on half of them to show up. Oh, I know I could compile a list by calling friends, and then friends of friends, and then friends of friends of friends, but that sounds like an awful lot of work.