So what is it? Where is it? Or is it being kept secret so us oldies don't get to find out about it?
Well, in our area, Brian, they are just venues that put on gigs. The venues do not present "genre-specific" music but folk gigs take their place amongst other types of music.
For example, Tina and I went to an event recently at the Green Door Store under Brighton Station. Main artist was the wonderful Glaswegian singer who we have booked a few times at the Royal Oak, Alasdair Roberts. The support was local singer, Elle Osborne.
The size of audience was about the same as when we booked him but much younger. Alasdair's repertoire and presentation style was no different from the way he put things over in a folk club. We were a good twice older than the next oldest person there. I was amazed to see the attentive young audience hanging on his every word as he sang a string of traditional ballads with no compromise using a small but efficient and not over loud PA. he sang to his own guitar and had an excellent pianist with him.
When we arrived and Tina saw that it was a standing venue, she said, "Oh no! I can't stand all night!", The young doorman told us to hang on and he rushed off and came back with a couple of seats for us. He came up to us to ask if we were all right at the interval and again to check that we had enjoyed the evening at the end. We would not have been made more welcome if we were making a first visit to a folk club.
There are a number of venues that operate like this in Brighton that we have been to, a couple in Hastings and the Underground Theatre in Eastbourne. They don't advertise in THE FOLK DIARY but if you seek them out, their publicity is good and generally they are well run.