Hi There

Gainsborough / Lincolnshire is typical of the problem faced by all performers, In the whole of Lincolnshire (From the Humber Bank to the Wash) there are only two paid gigs at folk clubs between today April 23 and the end of the month April 30.
That's a good week, usually there is only one, sometimes none at all.
But Folk is thriving, plenty of sessions / singarounds and paid gigs outside the club circuit, and a good spread of Trad / Contemporary.
Anyone coming into folk as a paid performer must accept that the "Folk Club" will in future provide only a very small part of their work and that they will be competing with hundreds more every time they call a club organiser.
Over the past few years I've had one Lincolnshire Folk Club gig a year, I'm a traddy but don't feel discriminated against, with 80 or so gigs a year available and several thousand acts chasing them I reckin that's a reasonable showing.

All the best

Jim Hancock