Pop-Up Ceilidh

Fiddle Paradiddle are back with another Pop-Up Ceilidh at The Bedford in Balham, starting Thursday 5 November. It's a mid-week night of nu-folk and ceilidh dancing in the pub's upstairs ballroom, and it's over-18s, so it works as a bit of an alternative to the usual weekday routine, a birthday, or just a night out with friends.

Fiddle Paradiddle run the nights, and they're a London ceilidh band with a nu-folk sound that they describe as foot-stomping and hand-clapping for young and old alike. They provide the live music and the calling, and the set mixes classic ceilidh dances with a few more adventurous ones, so you'll get the familiar stuff alongside things that might be a bit less well-known. If you've never done a ceilidh before, the caller talks you through the steps, so you don't need to know any of it coming in.

The Bedford is a good fit for it. The pub was built in 1931 and reopened in 2018 after a multi-million-pound refurbishment, and it's since become one of the city's best rooms for live music, comedy and wrestling. The upstairs ballroom has hosted ceilidh nights since 2014, and thousands of people have danced through it over the years. The room has its own bar, and there's a separate space to sit between dances, so you can take a breather when you've had enough.

Doors open at 19:00, dancing starts around 19:30, and the last dance is usually about 22:00. Tickets start from £20.35 for a single ticket.