something I've remembered from the festival where I met Willie Beaton: He was part of an ad-hoc céilidh band of attending musicians who were gathered together to compete in the band competition. It was a largish grouping and quite different from the regular céilidh bands. So although they were good musicians the judges wouldn't know what to make of the grouping. The story I heard was that Willie and his mates did this annually and always got disqualified for playing an Irish tune in their selection.