I've been getting some weird(ish) requests for ceilidh-type events recently. Managed to dispose of some of them fairly rapidly but am not entirely sure what to do with another one of them.

The easiest one was the request from an outfit which organises “farm concerts” in a place near Schwalmstadt. They're playing folk music and want to put on a ceilidh in the summer. This is about 90 minutes to drive from Frankfurt and I was happy to bounce the request to Yulia, who actually lives in Schwalmstadt, so it's on her home turf.

Another one was from a Männergesangsverein (male choir) near Runkel on the river Lahn. They are planning a “Scottish evening” and want a demonstration and some audience participation dances. There's no way, given the current makeup of the FSCDC e.V., to get a team of 8–10 dancers to Runkel (which is 90 minutes to drive from Frankfurt in a different direction), so I respectfully declined the request. (We say on our web page that we're only available for events in the Rhine-Main area, and both Schwalmstadt and Runkel are stretching that concept somewhat.)

The difficult one was one that I was going to let pass until Christine told me she'd be somewhat interested. This is a ceilidh which is supposed to be at the end of March (these guys are planning ahead) as a fund-raiser for a human-rights association in Heidelberg. I have no problem in principle with raising funds for human rights, but I draw the line at working for free (they're graciously offering to cover our expenses) when in all likelihood everything else at the event – like the hall rental, or the caterer – is going to be paid. What people don't seem to appreciate is that playing music is not simply a matter of turning up on the night, performing for two hours and then going home again. Going to Heidelberg involves at least four hours of getting the car packed and ready, driving there, driving back later and getting everything out of the car again, and that's on top of the actual event. Plus there's time to be spent on finding and arranging music, practising the tunes (alone and with Christine), etc., etc.

True, playing Scottish dance music is a hobby for me, and I have a day job that pays the bills (and then some), but it would be nice to not be taken for granted. SCD music in particular is one of the more difficult types of dance music to play – if you're an Alleinunterhalter (solo entertainer) playing pop tunes and “golden oldies” at events like weddings, you can play the same material every night and in any case your digital keyboard will be doing most of the work from MIDI files that you buy off the Internet. We Scottish musicians play every note ourselves, from arrangements that we made ourselves, and there are different dances with different music literally on every single night where we perform. 18 dances means 70 different tunes, give or take (plus waltzes, polkas, etc.), and while we can (and do) recycle many of the “alternatives”, we still need to spend time researching the original tunes and picking other tunes to go with them. If you total up the time spent preparing for an event like a full evening ball (research, arranging, practising), plus going to the venue and actually playing there, and divide the fee by the number of hours, you're going to end up with a number that is considerably below the statutory minimum wage.

OTOH, people are complaining about how expensive Scottish balls are already. For us musicians, charging more – even charging what the wedding musicians with their digital keyboards would charge – would just mean fewer or no gigs, and it's way too much fun to play at a ball to not do it. So things are probably going to stay that way.

I should also mention that my reservations apply, for the most part, to ceilidh-type events by outside parties (especially ones that charge for attendance). I'm perfectly happy to invest my own time supporting actual SCD events, especially classes and workshops. For example, I volunteered to play at the Bonn Spring Workshop in mid-March, simply because I like the event and want to be part of it.

Coming back to that human-rights thing in Heidelberg, Christine is talking to the guy, and we might do it if we get the timing right (the request didn't even specify if it was supposed to be an afternoon or evening gig). We might be able to combine it with our rehearsal for the Frankfurt ball, but we'll see. The interesting problem will be to find a caller – I'd ask Viktor as a matter of principle because it's his area, but if he can't or won't do it, we'll have to find someone else who is willing to do it for free.