Hello Drumshanty!

There is a general enquiries number on the website. It sounds like the best place to start for enquiries re the hiring fair. However, I have also heard that places get booked very quickly. Failing getting onto that there are any number of good singarounds where it is helpful to go and get experience and hope that maybe you get noticed. A lot can depend on your age. There are quite a number of competitions open to performers at various festivals round the country, particularly for those who are under 25. However, for those of us who are longer in the tooth some competitions are open to all ages, such as the competition for traditional singers at Saltburn Folk Festival. Competitive performing is a really good way to move forward. I had a go at Saltburn a few years ago. Although I didn't win (I was soooo nervous that I forgot the words to one of my songs!) it was really good experience for me as it forced me to try and work my skills up to a good standard and performing in a different environment is good experience. After the competition I found that people had started to take notice of me and although it didn't lead to paid work it did lead to people inviting me to lots of singarounds and generally getting more experience.

Hope I see you again, maybe at Whitby. I'm working on my Scottish material. This week I've sung "Fit can a young lassie", "My son David", and "Bonnie Glenshee" at local clubs, plus told a story.

Cheers!
Diane Taylor