Folk Clubs are in general run by well meaning well intentioned people who put a lot of time and effort into offering an invaluable service to Folk Music.

But

There are some clubs out there that are, to put it mildly, awful. These are the clubs, usually run by some blinkered old folkie who insists they know what "Real" folk music is, and often discourage other musical styles.
More importantly, these people have forgotten that they should be providing entertainment. An entertainment that should attract an audience, not a small collection of fellow performers, who sit in silence, listening to someone murder a song, again.. and again..and then praise them….

Folk clubs will die out if standards are poor and they fail to attract, and keep, a wider audience. It is no use clubs relying upon "names" to attract an audience. If that club can't provide the proper support for the "Name" then that audience is lost to the club.

Finally it is very easy for me to criticise, and I am the first to admit that I couldn't organise any function in a brewery, so I do have admiration for those who run folk clubs, but let's try to raise the standards and give folk music the status it truly deserves

Stuart Pendrill