A folk club in Montreal in the 1960s and 1970s (to the present day in fact) used to hold what I think UK people call open mics. The first 12(?) 'folkies' to put their names in were the lineup for the Sunday night. Some evenings ya'd get Jesse Winchester, Penny Lang, Chris Rawlings, Noah Zacharin, Tammy Bailiss, Gary Davis and others of similar quality. Some evenings it'd be kids new to music. The club is still going. (They don't serve booze--never have. They do serve music and coffee.)

Each performer had three songs with a total time not to exceed 15 minutes. I can recall very few Sunday nights when there was not a full house.