I think the Ceilidh band will have a PA in the main hall out of necessity - certainly for the caller but the venue is at a school and utilises the classrooms which are small enough not to need a PA.

In the past Angie has had Friday night concerts where anybody can arrange with the MC to have a floor spot for two or three songs in between the guests in the large school hall or the gym without PA which to me didn't work as you found that anybody more than 4 rows back couldn't hear properly and you ended up with no voice trying to project yourself far enough. I couldn't see the point of not having a PA for that event but Angie was adamant that it would be purely acoustic. Last year's Fridaynight-athon was split between two smaller rooms and acoustically better without a PA.

The gym was awful as a venue because of the reverberation which mushed everything up. Thankfully that was not used again.

I'll see you there doing some songs about railways with Chris Harvey.

Cheers
Mark