Fewer clubs, but a lot more sessions. It's swings and roundabouts.

Two practical reasons why the folk clubs developed in Britain were because on the one hand there were a lot of pubs with function rooms which were underused, and the law was sticky (as it still is) when it came to allowing live myusic in the bars.

Function rooms where you can have a private club are becoming far and few, with pubs reorganising themselves, and charging a lot for using them.

Many clubs have been killed by that kind of thing - and they are also up against a culture in which the idea of mixing generations is very much out of fashion.

My impression is that the clubs that are most successful are the ones that have developed into bnecoming the centre of a wider range of folk-related activities.