When you say centrally, are you talking Midlands-ish (which would make sense for getting to London in 2-3 hours)? If so, trains from (for example) Birmingham to Glasgow are 4 hours. Flights are just over an hour and even cheaper than trains if you get them booked at a reasonable time. Of course that's in Birmingham and surrounding so you might be nowhere near there!

I know folk who travel from Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast to Birmingham just for one night at Candy Box! It's obviously dependent on how much you want to see a show - travelling any sort of distance for something you're unsure about probably doesn't appeal!


When I lived in Birmingham I got a lot of "oh you came ALL THE WAY FROM SCOTLAND?" comments from folk who seemed to think it was this faraway land... I mean obviously if I was coming from Inverness or somewhere, that would be quite a bit away - but Glasgow isn't that far from the Midlands!

Hehe, when me and my boyfriend went to Birmingham for Moseley Folk Festival we met some people there who were shocked that we'd come "all the way from Liverpool".

I've only briefly looked into travel times/costs for Glasgow from Liverpool, but some of the prices do seem a bit much for someone on a smallish budget. National Express is cheaper, obviously, but then you have something like a 7 hour journey. Maybe one day (and with extremely early booking for cheap fares!) I'll make it to Scotland, but for now I'll have to stay a bit more local! I mean, I haven't even made it out of Liverpool as far as burlesque is concerned, so I'm only a beginner

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buxom bimbo and political poltergeist

Probably too far for me to travel on a regular basis. But have my mums family up there so if I was already visiting them I would probably go the extra hour up to Glasgow.
If it was someone I really wanted to see I might make the effort with enough notice and if it was on a Sat night.

Not travelling a long way for one nights entertainment is entirely valid and understandable and Rufus and I have big plans bubbling away to remedy this problem for 2009, watch this space.

We regularly travel down to events in England for one night but it's to our advantage as promoters because as well as having fun we are seeing lots of performers and what's going on in the scene in the UK as a whole.

I can't speak for all the promoters/performers in Scotland but certainly Rufus and I utilise MySpace, Bebo, our Website and mailing list as well as posting here when we have an event so all the usual marketing channels are being used. The thing is, when news of a Scottish event is posted here there's not nearly as much of a buzz as there is for most English events.

As recent as May, we had a whole weekend of burlesque here in Scotland - Daiquiri Dusk & Cat Aclysmic (neither of whom are newcomers) launched Rockaburley, which was a fantastic night with performances from the promoters, myself, Missy Malone and Sakura Tsui (who's been performing for years). Followed by that we had a Dr Sketchy on the Sunday.
That weekend was highly publicised here on the forums and would have been an ideal opportunity to make the journey and have it be worth your while but no one did.

This August is going to be huge for burlesque in Scotland with the Dr Sketchy Birthday Party, the Edinburgh High Tease events and The Bongo Club Cabaret all happening - all of which have exceptional line-ups - so is anyone making the journey?

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Performance Artist - Writer - Creative Director - RwP

I'm in Derby, which is quite a bit further north than Birmingham, but I see your point. Trouble is, if I were to take the train to Glasgow it would probably cost me around £100. If I wanted to stay over rather than take the four hour train journey back the same night, that'd be more cost. I just can't afford that kind of money for one night. The Candy Box is the most expensive club I've ever been to, and to be fair, if it was any further afield than Birmingham, I probably wouldn't bother with it. I'm certainly not a regular, and that's mainly due to budget. So paying so much to travel to a club in Scotland, however good it may be, is just not something I can consider.

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I'm not from Scotland, but my real first name is Scottish!

As far as I know there are flights - which can be very inexpensive - from Bristol/Birmingham. If I was planning a mini-break - and Scotland is on the list of places to go - I'd definitely seek out the burlesque scene. If I had enough spare cash - I would plan a trip based on wanting to see a particular event.

I've only ever been to Scotland for the Edinburgh Festival.

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pure cheap, pure travel, pure public transport. x

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