It must be time to bring on the morris dancers and work off all that aggression! How any performer is received in an individual response.
I have little time for unaccompanied singing, I find it painful. I have only ever encountered a few people that could carry it off. Others are free to disagree. But this thread is about how widespread performances are, not individual foibles of performers(sitting arse about face on a chair and warbling with a finger in the ear springs to mind)
Some performers wear woolly pullies, others have been known to sit in rocking chairs - Who cares? These people must have been "good" otherwise I would have to give them names. In the UK everyone will know who I am referring to. On TV and radio folk is a very small niche rarely catered for, in contrast to the halycon days of the sixties. But other media has largely supplanted TV and radio and statistics are not easily obtained.
The exact number of clubs is uncertain as I believe the typical folk venue and audience size requires no licensing any more(post 2012)I could be wrong on that.But if I understand correctly it is still required to obtain a music license from PRS PPL, Again I may be wrong on that, not having run folk clubs. Ir would seem the body issuing the permits would be able to answer the question of how many venues and give a definitive response to the number of clubs by year.(depending on how detailed their data collation.) It would need someone more clued up than me to pursue the question.