Agree with you, Don. At Tonbridge we had a perfect venue for 50 people, in itself rare, until Ceroc entered next door- £5 an hour session, 3 sessions nightly, only cost of CDs- lots of money for the pub, and impossible for us to run acoustically next door. So we're in a smaller but available venue. Many venues here are prohibitively expensive for the organisers to risk on a regular basis. The late John Smedley built up Folk South East very effectively to show artistes of the stature mentioned by Guest. However, he chose his performers very carefully, as does Vic Smith in Lewes. The halfway house where newish performers learn how to handle audiences of around 100 hardly exists here these days, although Faversham seems to run very effectively in a smallish town. I suspect that acoustic musicians maybe stay in town for the evening, or, having commuted, subside into an armchair. Maybe Sue Hudson will tempt them out to the Ivy House on February 7th!