Ceilidhs are a great way to have fun and connect with others. They can be perfect for community events, school fundraisers, work socials, special birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, and festivals. No experience is needed, and it’s a great way of bringing together a group to have a fun time. Some things to consider when planning your event:
Venue
Ceilidhs can happen almost anywhere, but ideally there’ll be enough space to dance and a floor without a carpet. Village halls work really well, as can function rooms in hotels or other venues. Filling the venue to fire-limit capacity is not ideal, as it will feel very crowded when dancing. Think about things like parking, accessibility, toilets, bar/kitchen/space to serve drinks (or ask people to bring their own), if there’s a stage (not essential, but very useful so the band can easily see the dancers), and what kind of furniture there is. It’s best to have places for people to sit and rest in between dances.
Audience
We try to make our ceilidhs as inclusive as possible. We always aim to include some gentler dances so those with limited mobility can still join in at least for some of it. And please let us know if your audience includes any particular accessibility needs, as we’ll do what we can to make sure everyone can enjoy it. We love creating family friendly events and are experienced at working with children. For events aimed specifically at families, we include suitable repertoire and tailor the songs and dances to the age group when possible. We tend to do gender-neutral calling, as it’s fine for anyone to dance with anyone! People don’t need any experience, as the caller explains all the dances as you go along.
Time and Duration
3 or 3.5 hours is a great amount of time for an evening ceilidh, and 4 hours is probably the maximum we would want to do. Ideally the minimum duration of a ceilidh would be about an hour, which allows for about 5 dances – that said we have done short ceilidhs at other events for 30 minutes and they’ve worked well too, so it depends a lot on the event and purpose. While lots of people hold evening ceilidhs, we are also happy to play for morning and afternoon ceilidhs, as it can be a great way to include families and others who struggle to get out in the evenings. For anything over 1.5 hours in duration, plan to include an interval or a couple of breaks to provide structure to the evening, and a break for the musicians and dancers.
Consider:
- How you’ll promote and sell tickets. If it’s a public event, we will help publicise too. Social media, posters, local papers, and word of mouth are all good ways to advertise.
- What your event will also include – think about whether you want or need catering, bar/BYO, raffle or other additional fundraising, speeches, other performances/floor spots etc.
- Whether you want to decorate the room and what kind of furniture is needed – in general make sure there’s plenty of space for dancing, and that it’s easy to get to the dance floor. So tables are best placed round the edges, with easy access to the dance space.
If you want to talk through your ideas and check what can work at your event, just get in touch via social media or contact@slipthejig.co.uk and we can have a chat about it.