Ceilidh Band & DJ in
Northumberland

Getting to Northumberland

Ninety-five miles to Alnwick as the crow flies, which is the figure the free-travel zone is measured on, and it puts most of north Northumberland inside it — Berwick at seventy miles, Wooler at eighty, Bamburgh at eighty-six, Alnwick and Rothbury at ninety-five. South of there the sums change: Morpeth is a hundred and nine, Hexham a hundred and eleven, Newcastle a hundred and twenty-one, and all of those are outside the zone with travel quoted separately and up front rather than buried. The A1 does the north-south work and the A697 is the inland alternative when the coast road is busy; the A69 runs the Tyne valley east to west. Being a border county cuts both ways — the drive is shorter than people assume, but it is still a different country's road network at the far end, and we plan the departure accordingly.

The rooms we play in Northumberland

What to sort before the night

Two things are specific to working in England rather than Scotland. Curfews run off the venue's premises licence under the Licensing Act 2003, which is a different regime from the Scottish one and worth checking early — venues here are used to the question and will tell you the finish time. And the rules on where a legal ceremony may take place differ from Scotland's, so couples crossing the border in either direction sometimes end up with a ceremony and a reception in different places; if that is the shape of your day, tell us at the enquiry so the timings work. Beyond that it is ordinary rural logistics: castle and estate access can be a long private road, marquee and steading power is often a generator, and coverage in the Cheviots and along the upper Tyne is patchy enough that arrangements get agreed in writing beforehand.

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 Northumberland books up

Busiest along the coast and at the castle venues from May to September, on much the same clock as the Scottish east coast. The Tyne valley and the market towns are easier, and winter dates in the town halls are among the more findable good Saturdays in our whole coverage area. Note the English school holidays run to a different calendar from the Scottish ones — if guests are travelling from both sides of the border it is worth checking both before fixing a date.

Questions we get asked about Northumberland

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