I've played both in retirement homes and in libraries (parks, schools, reenactments, weddings, dances, art fairs, etc.). It's pretty weird playing in libraries but we don't do it much--we sometimes get called in for holidays or special occasions. We're not professional musicians, though, so we generally either don't get paid or don't get paid much (or, if we're playing for little old ladies, we get paid in cookies).

It has seemed to me that virtually everyone on here is a musician, but please don't push to make it a professionals' forum--those of us who are not professionals take it no less seriously and don't want to be stigmatized just because we have to do something else to feed ourselves. I'm not saying that there isn't a need for a professionals' forum (I wouldn't know since I'm not a pro), and I don't have a problem with people posting professional questions as threads, but I would not like to see Mudcat turned over to that purpose.