I suspect that the reason people have left folk clubs is that there are far more ways of spending an evening listening to good quality live music nowadays (and I am speaking as a folk club attendee of over 40 years!). When I started going to the Hartlepool Folk Club in the late 70's there were few other outlets for affordable live music in the town - now, although I have moved away and don't know the exact details of the local scene, there are many more. Similarly in York where I live now the folk club is only one option in a city full of live music - I attend occasionally but I also go to gigs in pubs and formal concerts - as well as running a folk / Americana concert series at a pub in the city

I think it is important that clubs and singarounds survive but I do not think that they are for everyone who enjoys folk music -clearly my definition of folk music - as I have outlined re song above - is much broader than some of those here.

The places where young people are engaging are the diverse festivals such as Shrewsbury where they can listen to an amazing range of music from trad to Americana, European etc and also play or sing in sessions.