What a lot of hot air in this thread, people finding the opportunity to vent on what is (or isn't) folk, why a festival's success cannot inform a club's running, why a cafe/house concert is different to a UK club, and of course what the Government should (or shouldn't) do about it.

And yet the question seemed so simple. It asked about the disappearance of audiences, not afficionados of this or that genre, membership card holders, locals, youngsters or bus-pass owners.

The answer has to be about plain supply and demand I think, and what drives them. Give the audiences something entertaining in a decent environment at a decent price, at a decent time of the day and a decent day in the week (whatever works in your area), advertise it properly, invest time, effort and probably money, take care of the proceedings, quality-control the performers/performances, ensure troublemakers are turned away or are otherwise controlled, and you might have a chance.

Subsidies help, but only to patch the inadequacies of whichever of the above is weak. No entrepreneur depends on subsidies.