Derby Festé Grand Ceilidh last night

Last night (Friday, 4th September) I gigged with the Derbyshire Volunteers at the Derby Festé Grand Ceilidh on the Market Place. We started at 9 pm, but by that time, the Market Place was absolutely teeming with people. They were all curious as to what was going to happen. There had already been something happening over by the Old Silk Mill, but we'd been setting up so I didn't see any of that.

What I did see was various artists walking about on stilts, some dressed like circus acts, others like something out of Doctor Who. Fantastic!

On the stroke of 9, we got going with a circle dance involving a random sequence of figures, such as "right-hand turn" and "do-si-do" and there were easily a couple of hundred people dancing - of all ages and sizes. It was great to see the ethnic diversity as well, especially as barn dancing (or ceilidh dancing) is often thought of as something old-fashioned and quaintly "English".

We were due to play till 11, and were cracking on at a fair old pace till it started to rain with 20 minutes still to go. As the stage had been put up without any roof or covering, we had no choice but to stop the show in order to avoid being electrocuted!

At least we left the audience wanting more!

Look out for the video, which I'll be posting in the next day or two.