Since joining this debate I've been taking note of which sorts of numbers/proportions make for a good singaround session.

I'm pretty sure 12 is a magic number for performers (assuming a 2+a bit hour session). This lets everyone do two songs if they're at the club fairly early - and gives earliest singers a third song. Technically the number of listeners can be none to infinity - but a typical 12 singer session here in the last two weeks seems to be 4/5 listeners.

So if your session pulls many more than a dozen perhaps friction may develop and a natural split occur. On the basis that one group will find a new venue, then new people should be pulled in if advertised properly, therefore more people participating in folk and getting around to other sessions in due course.

The danger is folk people not in the slightest bit interested in spreading the folk word outward but simply trying to grab a big slice of the old setup - and that's when a folk scene starts spirally down the big musical plughole as neither is sustainable. Discuss!