Swing Your Partners

Derek Kingscote, Barn Dance and Ceilidh Caller

A Brief Guide to Organising a Barn Dance/Ceilidh

Introduction

Venues

Food and Refreshments

The type of food will largely depend on the event. If you want a DIY approach, there are a number of options :

Ploughman’s Supper

The best method is to use the KISS (keep it short and simple) principle. A Ploughman’s supper is easy to organise but it can be as elaborate as you want (or not).

One key benefit of a ploughman’s is that nearly all the preparatory work for this can be done beforehand, with a very minor amount immediately before serving. The biggest benefit of all is that you are in complete control regarding timing and serving.

Fish and Chip Supper

I have seen this organised both very badly and extremely well. It needs to be well organised particularly for large numbers, otherwise multiple deliveries are necessary. This means that you could end up with half of the people dancing and the other half eating.

This also has to be well co-ordinated with the caller or a dance may have to stop prematurely so that the food can be consumed while it is still hot.

Barbecues

Of necessity these must be done outside and your "chefs" will need to be extremely organised to ensure that all of the food is ready at the same time. The problems caused if this is not well organised results in people "grazing" throughout the early part of the evening.

Barbecues also encourage everyone to stay outside if the weather is fine and the event won’t start in earnest until people have eaten. I have known of dances that were due to start at eight o’clock that did not begin until well after nine in such circumstances.

Another potential complication is that you are at the complete mercy of the weather and it is not much fun for the chefs if it is raining!

Caterers

Caterers are valuable in that they remove all of the strain from you and this makes a big difference if you want to concentrate on enjoying your event. You will need to book well in advance and agree suitable menus as appropriate.

Refreshment considerations

It is a nice gesture to provide drinks for the band and to include them in the food arrangements during the mid-evening break. However, in order to prevent any delay in the re-commencement of dancing, it is a useful idea to ensure that the band are served with their food early.

One key point is that if you are not in direct control of the eating arrangements it will always take longer to serve everyone than anticipated!

Also, don’t forget to make the arrangements for clearing up after eating. It can be as simple as organising a few people to take bin liners around to collect the debris.

I can help you with further details if required.

Be sure to book early to avoid disappointment.