i'm in chester uk.

there's only one surviving folk club in the town, but many sessions & singarounds.

the audience numbers at the folk club have been decreasing greatly both on singers nights & also when they have guests, & this has been the trend over the last 5 yrs or so.

i run a weekly singaround which is usually very well attended, with audience numbers almost always above the fc attendees.

as mine's run as an open & informal gathering, there's no hard & fast rules about musical content- with the major exception that it must all be acoustic, no mikes or amps.

as regards musical content, i find that while 'folk' audiences like to hear stuff either traditional or in the genre,general pub audiences are more attracted to & feel more comfortable with the sort of songs & music that everybody knows.

as a consequence, each weekly gathering is different, with 50's, 60's, 70's etc rock, soul, pop songs, trad & contemporary folk, bluegass, sean nos,other unaccompanied floor singing, & jigs, polkas, marches etc from manifold tunesmiths.

on other nights, me & musical hums go to other local gatherings & this also provides an opportunity for publicising our gathering, so from one week to another, there's often performers & audients travel from near & far to participate & enjoy.

in conclusion, i think some reasons for demise of folk clubs is that
they can be too exclusive & narrow in their content, and as mentioned by others above, the 'prima donna' syndrome can creep in with resident bands, having the effect of alienating audiences & other participants alike.

i think the natural evolution of 'folk' singing & carrying on a tradition of people enjoying singing & making music together must move with the times, & not exclude any 'non folk' people from it.

& that's my 2p worth!