No, it is not a wide variety of music that kept the clubs going; just the opposite, it is a non-definition of music at 'folk' clubs that drove audiences away in their thousands.
People choose very carefully what music they want to listen to - at least those with discrimination and a real interest in music do.
Crane driver is right when he suggests "if you don't like a club's policy and can't persuade it to change - go elsewhere".
Toleration has nothing to do with the running of clubs. People have the right to set up any type of music venue they wish, and in doing so they make up their own rules and limits as to what goes on there, and audiences attend or not on the basis of those decisions.
The problems arise when they attached labels to their clubs which simply don't stand scrutiny.
As far as I'm concerned; "Bert Jansch - John renborun - Roy Harper - Fairport - Steeleye Span - Davy Graham - Incedible String Band; (Tom Paxton - Judy Collins - Joni Mitchell - perhaps James Taylor even)" do not fall within my definition of 'folk' and I really wouldn't bother to drag myself out to attend a club whose policy incorporated any of them. If my opinion is wrong I would like to hear an accepted definition that does include these names - (please - if we continue to flog the 'talking horse' bit someone is sure to call the RSPCA. I'm convinced that it is always given the 'anon' label because no self-respecting individual would ever own up to having said something so crass!)_
The urban legend about the club that held auditions for floor-singers is, I am convinced, a result of somebody's feverish imagination. No club I know has ever had such a policy, nobody has ever been able to name the alleged club, and no performer I know would ever subject themself to such an indignity.
Jim Carroll