here is an example of open mics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLNtDMPegkY. different times, different solutions , what a lot of poppy cock.
in the sixties and seventies, folk club performers had to know their words without lyric sheets,and often managed to perform well and sing audibly and well without amplification and louder than their accompaniments, if this is a typical example it is not a solution to anything, all it is, is a pleasant background sound that beer festival drunkards can talk over, music to get oblivious too.