I must be lucky, Faye. In the last few weeks I've been to a mixture of clubs, sessions and singarounds in Cheshire, Sussex and Surrey, where the standard of performance - on the whole - was excellent. The acoustic sessions, in particular, produced some excellent young singers and instrumentalists. I know what you mean, though - there are certainly one or two fairly deadly places around the place. However, whether all this means that the scene is dying or flourishing, appears to be in the eye of the beholder. I echo the wise words of Little Hawk:

A folk club now is just that....a "club" for people...a place where a few local people get together with their friends to relax and share in a common interest. If they have a more informal attitude to the music than you do, that may bother you, but if you want to be part of that scene then you either have to put up with it, or else BECOME the change you wish to see. In other words, YOU learn to play some stuff really well, without screwing up any of it, and get up there onstage and do that. It should give you much satisfaction, and it should entertain other people as well. You will be personally building the future for the kind of folk club you want.