Lastly - can I suggest that people look carefully the reason for this thread, it is a positive, forward looking thread to let floor singers know where they CAN support a folk club and not pay to sing (paying to play is a joke in rock music).
there is one very good commercial reason ,for letting floor singers in either free or at a reduced rate:it brings more people to the pub,who then have a little more money to buy beer /soft drinks,this keeps the publican happy .
the nucleus of a good club are singers,without singers ,the organiser   has either to pay people to do a support or have residents ,that he can rely on .
if an organiser seems short of floor singers ,it would seem a good idea to encourage people to sing, to let them in free.
if he /she finds that all he/ she is getting are poor singers,he can change the system .,
but as far as the landlord is concerned all he wants is numbers,if it means that the only way of getting people to a venue is by making it free,and that is the only way of maintaining a club, why not?.obviously this is not in my interest as a professional folk singer,but I am trying to look at this objectively ,rather than subjectively.http://www.dickmiles.com