"it's much harder for four or five piece bands to get gigs when your local pub venue can book a DJ or a karaoke for much less. The expectation of what is a reasonable fee for a night of music is driven down, and making any kind of living from music gets harder"

When it comes to Silent Ceilidh, by the time you've hired the equipment and paid your DJs, it could be more expensive than a band (depending on how many headsets you require).

The way it's being done on the younger end of the circuit, it's a bit of a laugh: ceilidh dancing to pop songs. But in the context of a festival or ceilidh series, it's definitely a one-off, the exception rather than the rule. We'll probably programme a couple of dozen ceilidhs and social dances this year at Sidmouth - one of them will use a DJ and recorded music. Personally, as a programmer, I don't see it as a threat to the live band. Part of the fun of a ceilidh is dancing to the band, but every now and again, something novel doesn't hurt, and it may being in new people to the ceilidh scene.

With regard to how it's done in social dance circles, you're talking about local clubs made up of maybe 20 dancers at a time. They can't afford a band even if they wanted one.

Apart from these two approaches, I'm not aware of any major ceilidh series that has swapped live bands for recorded music. Even the little ceilidhs that happen in village halls around here use a live local band, and they attract lots of non-folkies who happen to live in the village. I don't think that would happen if the evening consisted of dancing to recorded music.