Many years ago, a local folk club had to stop for a short while whilst the pub was refurbished, and re-launched themselves.

Now, the club had been dying on its feet. Rightly or wrongly, they decided the term folk club had stereotype connotations. SO.. they used the term acoustic music nights.

Lots of people came out of the woodwork, still had some excellent local traditional musicians and singer, and the spread of music didn't really alter from before. The difference was the turnout. Fairly full most weeks.

I still to this day haven't decided if it was changing the word folk to acoustic, (the intended change) or whether the possibly inadvertent dropping of the word club did it.

Club can be construed as belonging, being part of something, and perhaps many people, often without giving it much thought, feel they want to drop in and out as the mood takes them, but would feel clubs have by definition members so would feel obliged to involve themselves?

Just a thought... Casual attenders may pick up on the word club and back off?