Ceilidhs in Lauriston Hall

We attended this ceilidh on 14/08/18 after great enjoying greatly last year. We dropped by the venue earlier in the day to ask about buying tickets and were told to come back half an hour before the start of the ceilidh. Advertised at £8 for adults and £6 for concessions we decided not to buy through the fringe website due to the 80p per ticket admin fee. When we arrived however, Ken told us it would be £10 each regardless of concessions. I tried to joke that we’d been caught out by trying to avoid the booking fee but Ken turned quite aggressive and demanded £10 each. 40% price hike for concessions? And I wasn’t even allowed to crack a joke? We considered leaving as we are not loaded with cash, but as last year had been such fun we decided to stay. We then had a half hour wait (no complaint, we were early), during which time we were scolded for using our phones... before more than half the attendees had arrived or the band had even sat down. I have to say the experience was soured a little but we still had fun and made friends with some fellow attendees who made the evening great! They need to include in the programme how to buy tickets for the advertised price and that their is a price hike on the day. Next year we will look for a different ceilidh.

I had the excruciatingly unpleasant experience of attending this ceilidh on 17/08/18.

What would have otherwise been a lovely evening (cheap bar, large space, good band) was ruined by the caller, Ken Gourlay.
Ken was extremely rude; constantly 'sushed' and manhandled people along with making a stream of offensive, inappropriate and what I perceived to be racist comments about one particular group of people in the room.

My party complained, had our tickets refunded and left the event. My understanding is that other complaints have also been made about the caller. There are other ceilidhs on during the Edinburgh Fringe- go to one of them. My advice is to avoid this one at all costs.

The ceilidh itself is great fun and a nice change from the other fringe shows.
However they over sell tickets for this show so the hall was packed and it was chaos trying to instruct and organise everyone. The caller was also surprisingly rude at times, especially to the large group of Chinese tourists trying to follow his directions.
With all this in mind, yes I'd recommend doing a ceilidh but unsure if this is the best one on offer.

As an adult family party of 4 we attended 11/08 21:00- expecting an adult themed ceilidh.... to find a hall full of Chinese children -with only a few English speaking adults. We initially thought that we were at the end of a class- so sat & waited.
I made the fatal error at 20:58 (2mins prior to the event starting) I received a txt msg from fellow NHS worker to advise of the death of a colleague - I read it, immediately without asking what I was doing Ken the caller aggressively told me to put my phone away as it was disrespectful to the musicians- who actually hadn’t even started playing) - he said he would refund our ticket prices- unfortunately both the doorman and bar staff were unable to refund at the time as so many people had already had refunds , there was no money left!!! He has to his credit honoured his word & refunded our ticket price.
Although I realise that phones cause distraction & may be a negative influence- I suggest the caller embrace social media & use it for promoting positivity about ceilidhs - using photos & videos & happy people having fun! (his feedback states he encourages videos /social media?)
Ken- your continual ‘shushing’ of those attending - particularly the foreign children were irritating & unacceptable. We missed out on an evening we had really been looking forward to!
The hall was air conditioned & alcohol cheap- but even that didn’t ensure we stay.....

What a disappointment this was! Lots of very young Chinese children were attending the ceilidh, who didn't understand English. So there was no chance of enjoying a normal ceilidh.
However, the worst thing was the rude and unpleasant attitude of Ken, the caller, towards our group of 4 adults. My goddaughter had just received an extremely distressing text concerning a colleague of hers who had been missing for a week, and whose body had just been discovered in a shallow grave, obviously having been deliberately killed. Ken came to us and ordered her to put her phone away. We hadn't realised the ceilidh had actually started as the musicians hadn't begun to play. My goddaughter was naturally very upset. Ken told us we could have our money back, which we decided to do. Unfortunately, so many people had asked for their money back that there was no cash left. We had to e-mail and request the money, which we received with no problem.
My advice would be, to anyone wishing to enjoy a ceilidh, avoid the ones organised by Ken!

This was one of the worst experiences of the Fringe I’ve had so far. In addition to the extremely high pricing for this event (9 pounds), the man running the show was extremely rude and had no patience for anyone. He proceeded to yell at me for checking my cell for the time and then told me to leave the venue. I’ve never experienced such rudeness ever at a Ceilidh or a Fringe event and will never attend another Ceilidh here again.