Breezy has highlighted a fundamental problem with all these threads about folk clubs. Namely what is it that constitutes a folk club and, more importantly, the unstated assumptions about what a folk club is. Breezy has at least made his (her) assumption clear, though I don't happen to agree with him/her. However anything s/he now says can be taken in the context of his/her assumptions.

A great many of the exclusively or largely singaround venues still call themselves folk clubs so to say that only somewhere where you pay to go in and sit down and listen to someone else performing can be called a folk club is, in my view, incorrect. If someone calls themselves a folk club and the music that goes in is folk or folk related music then, as far as I'm concerned, they are a folk club regardless of whether they hire performers for their audience or are 100% participatory. Many clubs do a bit of both, with regular singarounds and paid guests interspersed. Folk clubs I know or know of local to where I live vary from 100% concert venue to essentially singaround with occasional guests with most coming somewhere in between.