Ceilidh Band & DJ in
The Lothians

Getting to The Lothians

Forty miles to the middle of the three, and the whole spread from Linlithgow in the west to Dunbar in the east sits inside the free zone. The practical difference from the city next door is that Lothian venues almost always have somewhere to park a van, which makes for a calmer setup and an earlier sound check.

The rooms we play in The Lothians

What to sort before the night

Field parking is the one that catches people out. A marquee on grass is straightforward in July and a recovery job after a wet week, so we want to know how far the van can get and what the ground is like underneath. Generators need declaring in advance — we bring our own distribution rather than assume a socket. Barn conversions vary wildly in what power is actually available at the performance end of the building as opposed to at the meter. Mobile signal on the rural stretches of East Lothian and the Pentlands edge is poor enough that we agree arrangements beforehand rather than plan to phone anybody.

There is a fuller version of this on the venues page, which sets out everything the band needs from a room — floor space, power, access, limiters, curfew and ceiling height.

When The Lothians books up

Marquee and barn season is May to September and it is fiercely contested — the good East Lothian Saturdays are the earliest-booked dates outside Edinburgh itself. Coastal hotels follow the golf calendar. The barns run through the winter and are underrated for it: a lit barn in December with the doors shut is a better room than the same barn in a heatwave.

Questions we get asked about The Lothians

More on the general FAQ, and the dances themselves are explained on ceilidh dances if your guests have never done one.