The one generalisation you can make about folk clubs is that they're all different. There are folk clubs that are happy with anything you play as long as you're not a horse. There are others where anything apart from unaccompanied traditional singing is treated coldly - and there are folk clubs where if you don't turn up with a guitar the organisers will assume you're 'just' a listener and will ignore you all night.

There is no 'standard format' to which you must sign up to be called a folk club. Remember that the organisers and regulars set up the club as a home for their tastes in music - they are entitled to run their club as they see fit. It seems the height of arrogance to say 'I'm going to sing whatever I like in your club and condemn you for intolerance if you don't like it'.

Most clubs I've been to welcome a fairly wide range of music, but there are exceptions - and not just on the 'pure tradition' side of the fence. Some club organisers share WLD's pathological hatred and contempt of anything not written in their own lifetimes. . . ;-}

Good advice above - listen, ask and, if you don't like a club's policy and can't persuade it to change - go elsewhere.

Andrew