A lot of what are called folk clubs today would not have been classed as folk clubs in the 70's. Sessions are not folk clubs in the 70's sense. There was a huge nationwide circuit of clubs that employed proffesional performers and provided them with a good living. it was a bit of a musical free for all, but you got to see great writers, singers and comedians for a rather small entrance fee.
As the more successful writers, singers and comedians left the clubs the writers, singers and comedians who had previously been floor singers began to take over and the audience drifted away to have children.
The explosion of talent that was the 60's and 70's was unique in its breadth. Today the young musicians mostly play better than we did, but I don't hear them writing better, or entertaining better.
The festival has become less about the music in many (but not all) cases, and more about being a lifestyle statement. Something for the weekend, but not for life.
The pubs have not helped, many installing sound systems that make playing upstairs an impossibility, and a more sophisticated generation don't want the spit and sawdust. Today, there are so many things for people to do in their own homes, let alone for a night out, that the circuit we had can never be rebuilt.
Basically for those of us there at the beginning of the Folk club boom it was a tremendously exciting and innovative time. If the young folkies today organise themselves as we did they could have the same fun, but too many of the new performers seem to want to be "stars" without paying their dues or organising venues.
I hear this from arts centres and clubs I play. The things they want provided backstage that they list in their contracts really make me laugh!
Folk music was sexy back then and I know so many marriages begun in folk clubs. So, that's what the young have to do. Make it sexy, organise, pay their dues and work bloody hard.....and even then they might make enough to just about live!