In 1986 there was an attempt to run a week long Folk festival in Harrow which , due to anumber of reasons was a tOTAL fiasc0 ! I was Short listed for 'Song Director' , but I got lucky and Hugh Diamond had the Unenviable job of booking artists for a programme based on the previous years Sidmouth Programme , but with only SIX Months to do it .
One of the complaints I heard was that ALL the acts were "ONLY" Club acts , not "REAL" Festival acts , and it seems that these are the people who get nominated for the Folk Awards .
As pointed out above , not many clubs can stretch to the money that
even 4 or 5 pice bands of any quality quite reasonably expect , so there is a BIG gap between Festival , Art Centre , and Major Concert Gigs and your 'average ' small folk Club .

Carry on from there !