I love John Kirkpatrick's essay on "Medley Mania", but please note that it did apply specifically to playing for dancers. The dancers get to learn which bits of the dance go with which bits of the tune, and when you change tune they lose all that.

I like to do two tunes per dance, can't stand the sort of bands that whizz through a whole page of tunes two at a time, thought that's the norm in the Scottish dance world.

For tunes to listen to, the ability to make up interesting variations would have to be very good indeed to keep interest up after many repeats. In a session, that's unlikely to happen; in a carefully crafted arrangement it might be possible.

Anahata