22/02/2026
*** Folk Club Guidelines - a Refresh ***
Fabulous folkies,
We have been running folk club for many years now and have always put emphasis on an informal, relaxed atmosphere so that everyone who wants to perform feels welcome to do so. With that ethos firmly in mind, it now feels important to reintroduce everyone to the underlying framework that keeps everything running smoothly, and to set out some clearer guidelines for a typical evening at folk club.
Folk club is designed to be a safe, encouraging space where musicians of a variety of backgrounds, personality types and experience levels are able to perform.
The format we chose when we started folk club was a performance space, rather than a 'session' set up. If you would like to perform, simply turn up on the evening and add your name to the sign up sheet. Each performer or group is invited to play 3 songs or tunes and we have an interval roughly half way through the evening.
With that in mind, we would like to remind all performers and audience members to please show the upmost respect to the person who is playing. It takes a huge amount of courage to put yourself out there to perform - it can be incredibly off-putting if there is a large amount of noise or chatter from the room. Each person is entitled to play their set uninterrupted.
Audience participation should therefore be instigated by the performer themselves, and them alone. Please don't presume that the performer is comfortable with people joining in. Whilst some performers may be very happy for you to sing along or add your own instruments, others may be uncomfortable with this or just find it distracting. Please wait to be invited by whoever currently has the stage, rather than putting them on the spot by asking.
If you are asked to keep your voice down for any reason during folk club, please simply do this. We are all adults and we have no desire to police this throughout the evening.
If at all possible, please keep movement around the room either between songs or in the changeover period between performers.
Thank you so much for your help and understanding. This is your folk club. If you have any issues or requests, please let us know - your feedback is really important. It is a huge privilege for us to host such a brilliant variety of performers each month, and we want to make sure you keep coming back!
Next folk club is this coming Thursday 26th February.
With ongoing admiration, Folk Club Team
