It's a bit of a quandary really- we run two monthly singing (mainly) sessions in Co Leitrim (Drumkeeran and Ballinaglera) We could run them in fairly private pub rooms but much prefer to do it in an open bar, and involve the locals.

A solely music session can continue as 'muzak, whatever the noise level, but unamplified singers cannot do that.
We have to make a judgment on arrival and decide whether to risk a potentially noisy bar without saying shhhhh in a public bar to locals who want to chat about football!

When it works, it's great but sometimes we beat a retreat to privacy- against all my principles, but if we have a guest singer, it's only fair to people who have driven 20 miles to hear listen to him or her.

The purpose of our singing circle is to promote 'traditional' singing (whatever that is) but we don't define that & whatever it is, in a public bar situation, a singer or musician (paid or not) would be very unwise to ignore requests, however outrageous.

Too much alcohol makes some folk very persistent & if you really DON'T want to sing the 'Wild Rover clap clap clap' you can fit it into a set of waltzes & keep yer punter happy ....