Apart from having different agendas, festivals differ from small clubs etc in being directly responsible for obtaining a PRS licence. Folk clubs are usually located in pubs where the venue, not the club, is responsible for getting a PRS licence. Clubs are dependent on the goodwill of the landlord, and if the landlord falls out with the PRS there's not much the club can do.

As a performer, I have no involvement with PRS licensing, since that is the responsibility of the venue, but it has a direct effect on what I do. I should have been providing set details for PRS returns, but in more than 40 years of performing, both as a floor singer and semi-pro band member, I have only been asked to do so on a handful of occasions - at the larger festivals and by the BBC. I many cases I would find it difficult, since I don't always know what is traditional and what is copyright, and it is very difficult to find out if you haven't learned it from a printed or recorded source (and those are not always correct).

As the organiser of a series of ceilidhs, again I have no involvement with PRS licensing, since that is still the responsibility of the venue, but again it has a direct effect on what we do.

The problem the smaller clubs and similar events face is that they depend entirely on having a PRS licence in place but are excluded from the process. I suspect that they are also effectively excluded from the Code of Practice and complaints procedure (including referral to the Ombudsman) since they are not themselves the licence holder.