I don't much care for raffles myself, but I can see the point of them. At a folk club or similar event, it's a way of offering a chance to contribute a bit more to the funds, with the chance of a prize to make it more interesting. This means the door price can be kept down, with the extra top-up from the raffle money being contributed by those who are able and willing to pay a bit more.

When I ran a pub music session we used to have a raffle. This was so that I could raise a little money to pay for adverts in the local folk magazine, and print out flyers to distribute about the session. Nowadays there would be enough opportunities for free publicity on the internet, but this was quite a few years ago, when publicity cost money.

We often sold tickets to non-participating pub customers as well as to the players. Some people apparently enjoyed the raffle, as it gave an opportunity for a bit of socialising and "crack". When I left the area, the session was thriving and no longer needed publicity, so I spent what was left in the kitty on a couple of jugs of beer to share around. The raffle had served its purpose.

Marje