Hi Dave

I think you've got to the nub of it (as others have above).

It helps enormously if someone sets out the club's stall at the start of the evening if there are new faces in, or maybe has a little chat at the door with any new people as they arrive.

Even a very informal singaround will benefit from a little 'hosting.'

People have radically different ideas about what is and isn't acceptable in a 'folk' 'club.' The problem being, as we've discussed here before, that those terms can legitimately be attached to some massively different standards, values and philosophies.

Much of the rancour above is, of course, caused by the application of a personal value set (by assumption) to an activity which is actually about something else entirely.

Many very different events and philosophies are lumped together under the terms 'folk' and 'club' (plus a few other non-specific terms) so you can't do much to differentiate in your promotion (assuming there even is any) between a community-based come-all-ye and a concert with a house band or paid support, for example - or the many other permutations in between.

But you can explain the group's approach. Then people will be more likely to buy into it themselves, or if they don't, at least they might leave feeling it's not for them, but without feeling short-changed.

A lot of the problems arrive purely because no-one has taken the trouble to explain what's going on and why.

Tom