I think I have a whole different take on this one. I only had anything to do with folk clubs and festivals during the 2nd half of the 1970s when I was a postgraduate student at Nottingham. Before that, I only went to folk clubs half a dozen times in Cambridge or Newcastle. I spent much more time in singsongs in pubs in my village and surrounding villages, carol singing and other rural activities (some urban ones too, in Newcastle).

During the 3 years I was at Nottingham, though, I went to folk clubs most evenings. These were pretty various and variable but, among the smaller ones, there was a clear 3-week cycle. Basically, this was:

Week 1 - guest night. Often a national figure. Packed but run at a loss
Week 2 - singers night. Packed, run at a profit
Week 3 - singers night. Low on numbers, usually run at a small profit.

The guest nights were often really great. Pet & Chris Coe, Martin Carthy etc. were regulars. We often had a great time at singers nights too. The club organisers weren't exactly breaking even, though. Not only were the singers nights subsidising the guest nights, the organisers were usually funding these things out of their own pockets or running fundraisers outside the scope of the folk club itself ... May Day events, Cailidhs and Barndances etc. They got to see people they wanted to see by doing it, so they felt it was worthwhile ... and probably it was.

I moved to Belfast in 1978, where things were a little different. When I came back in 1982, I moved back near to where I'd been brought up and so I came back to the tradition of pub singsongs and so on, though I did get involved with folk dancing locally.

That's where I am now. Occasionally, I'll go to a concert. I've been to folk clubs a dozen or so times in the past 25 years, usually when they've asked me or one of the groups I'm involved with to perform. I'm happier than anything singing and playing music with my friends in the local village pub, and that's what I think of as "folk" if I call it that.

If there's someone on I like at a folk club, I might go see them. There seldom seems to be enough time, though.

If somebody can make a living out of this precarious occupation, good luck to them. Conversely, I don't think you can exactly blame the organisers of folk clubs for putting on local people who cost less, or nothing at all. After all, they have a hard enough time keeping going anyway.

;-)
Ian