Ceilidh Consortium

Subject: Ceilidh Consortium
From: Fee Lock
Date: 05 Dec 07 - 08:50 AM

From 'Ruth stil at work'
>Subject: RE: FDDSS New Chief Exec.
Hey - look what just popped into my e-mail in-box!
"White Horse Ceilidhs present
Boldwood + Will Hall
in Grove Village Hall, OX12 7JY, (nr Wantage, Oxfordshire)
Supported by The National Lottery®
through Awards for All via
SEFAN's Ceilidh Consortium scheme
Doors open 7.30pm for 8pm-11:30pm"
A ceilidh consortium being run by a bunch of clearly self-interested Arts Managers, achieving funding through the lottery...who'da thunk it?<

Err, not exactly - four ceilidh dancers, one of whom calls, one does the paperwork, one who picks the bands and the other's the treasurer.

It undoubtedly sounds grander than it is (public funders require
constituted organisations so they know where the money's going), however, we're trying to help dances survive in areas other than in Haywards Heath, home of the Meltdown Ceilidhs.

We were exceedingly lucky in picking up the Newick ceilidhs crowd and have worked incredibly hard over the last few years to attract students from our two sixth form colleges and locals from all over mid-Sussex and the coast. We believe passionately in traditional music and dance and have used some money from 'start-up funds' to bring new dancers to other areas. It's also handy to have someone on the team who knows that it's possible to apply for funding to advertise at colleges, or to have traditional acoustic music being played in areas where students regularly go for lunch, etc. We did this by putting acoustic duos playing traditional music in the foyers of some of the larger hotels and arts centres in Brighton. We now have some of the youngest ceilidh-heads outside of the festivals and they keep coming back for more!

As far as telling people about these dances, we feel really strongly about spam and try only to send emails to those people who have either expressed an interest or who are clearly involved in similar ventures. I normally send out the Meltdown Ceilidhs emails but not the Sefan ones, but if you don't want to hear about them any more, please either email me off-list and I'll get your address removed from our list, or you can send one directly to www.sefan.org.uk.

Regards,

Fee x
www.FeeCallsCeilidhs.co.uk