Themed folk

The success of themed sessions depends on the type of club and the nature of the themes adopted.

Smaller clubs with a loyal and regular audience are particularly suitable for this approach because they can announce forthcoming themes during regular club nights. This allows them to gauge interest and be sure of reasonable attendance without having to spend extra money on advertising.

Larger clubs which rely on big-name guest performers and attract most of their audiences by advertising the guest's appearance are less likely to find themed nights a viable option, although some have bravely promoted themes around the style or musical genre of the star guest.

For the guest-less themed open nights, the choice of theme is critical, and there are several guidelines arising from the current trend for these evenings.

Picking obscure themes might seem amusing but it seldom works because simply not enough people can contribute.

For clubs where singing is predominant, broad themes will give plenty of scope for people wanting to take part. There's certainly no shortage of songs about such topics as seasons, flowers, love, husbands/wives, travel, homesickness, war, migration and work.

For sessions which are mostly instrumental, similar broad topics relating to the tune titles can work, but they are not so obvious. Themes based on the music of a particular region or period are more commonly recognisable and can be popular. Common sense should prevail - an Irish night will leave plenty of scope for floor singers or musicians, whereas a session devoted to Bulgarian music might struggle both for performers and audience.

In clubs where a particular instrument is especially favoured, an evening without that instrument can be a welcome change and bring out more variety than usual. Guitar-free evenings are a relatively common example if this.

Sessions featuring only one type of instrument are usually thought to be too limiting except when they are put on as part of a workshop in playing techniques.

Tributes to particular songwriters, tune writers or performers can work well, depending on the appeal of the tribute subject.

Humorous themes are increasingly popular, such as 'out of character' nights when regular players or singers do something completely different from their normal material, or 'out of favour' evenings when people do those over-familiar songs or tunes which nobody does any more because everybody used to do them.

With a bit of imagination, theme nights can be great fun and can encourage an expansion of the material normally associated with folk clubs - hence their growing popularity.

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