In 2025, we are dedicated to further promoting folk music, focusing on Scottish folk music and artists from Scotland who represent a rich tapestry of diverse folk genres.

We invite submissions from folk musicians not only from across the UK but also from around the globe.

At NEAT, we understand that folk music is a vast and inclusive field encompassing various styles. We are committed to supporting and showcasing outstanding talent across these diverse genres.

When submitting your fee, please provide a fee that includes all associated costs; you should consider travel, accommodation, meals, and any other miscellaneous expenses.

We cannot increase fees later, as we must work within the confines of our programming budget.

Your fee should be calculated per performance.

Your fee should also reflect your level of experience, skill and talent. Fees should be in line with at least minimum industry rates. If you are a touring company, then we expect all production team members will be paid at least the minimum industry rates.

We will not negotiate lower fees as we respect and value your skills and talent. As a responsible arts charity, we want to ensure that all artists receive fair compensation for their work. Suppose we can provide three or more consecutive performances. In that case, we may ask if there’s a chance of lowering the third performance fee or any subsequent fees after that, but this will always be done in consultation.

NEAT will guarantee your fee. We will only enter into box office splits if your financial model is driven by such an approach.

Promoter decisions are usually driven by something other than your fee, as they are not expected to pay for your performance.

We will consider your fee part of our selection process, especially during these challenging times.

If you plan to apply for the Touring Fund for Theatre and Dance or if your tour is funded through this fund, please contact us as soon as possible. We want to start an early dialogue to help you create a successful tour.

Please choose between one and thirty dates when you can tour the North East of Scotland.

You can also let us know about your availability. For example, if you live nearby, you may be flexible with dates, or you might have a specific time frame for your tour that we should consider.

If your production is selected for our Volunteer Promoter Selection Menu and gets interest from our volunteers, you will have a chance to update your available dates.

We want this process to be easy for you. You do not need to hold or reserve dates for NEAT. If your show is chosen for our menu, we hope our promoters will select it. We also encourage you to secure other opportunities for successful tours.

However, if a promoter chooses your show and we’re already working on programming, we kindly ask that the selected dates remain provisional. This way, we can work together quickly to confirm dates and contracts.

Marketing materials have become both an environmental and financial challenge. Many of our promoters also face practical issues, such as fewer community spaces available for displaying posters due to the closure of village shops, libraries and pubs.

The cost of printing and posting publicity materials has increased. Over recent years, many independent or solo artists have stopped printing their own publicity materials, and we have taken on this task. However, this adds to NEAT’s staff and resource costs.

Going forward, we expect touring companies or solo artists to provide a reasonable amount of A4 posters and A5 flyers to our volunteer promoters. If these materials are overprinted with Box Office details, we will promptly forward all information. If the materials have blank spaces, we will print and post labels for the volunteers to stick on the posters and flyers. You will need to post the publicity materials to each promoter.

If you do not print your own publicity materials, we will charge the following for design, printing, and posting:
• £75 for designing and printing for the first booking.
• £10 for each additional booking.

For example, three bookings would cost £95.

Our promoters often find it extremely difficult to read long text answers filled with unfamiliar jargon. As volunteers, they can become disengaged, especially when they have to review a menu of 30 to 40 productions. This doesn’t mean they aren’t open to promoting shows on diverse topics.

Remember, they are volunteers from all walks of life, not professional programmers. They are committed to promoting live performances in their communities.

Please keep your text answers as short as possible and use clear, straightforward language.

We value your privacy and will not share your information with anyone outside of NEAT. Once a booking is confirmed, we’ll share your contact details with the volunteer promoter and provide you with their details so you can finalise arrangements directly.

However, sometimes it might be beneficial to share your details with other programmers. This could help us secure additional dates for you, making your visit to the North East of Scotland more feasible.

You’ll be able to confirm if you’re happy for us to share your information when you submit your show.

During the submission, you can tell us about any other venues you have booked or plan to book in Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Angus, Moray, and as far north as Inverness.

This information won’t affect your chances of being selected. Instead, it will help us collaborate with you to create more sustainable tours and reduce administrative time.

Please note that some of the venues listed below have exclusion zones in their contracts, which may impact which NEAT venues can accommodate your show. NEAT does not have exclusion zones, as we want as many people as possible to experience live performances.

We are always happy to explore cross-promotion to support you and build a stronger live audience across the region.

Knowing this information upfront can reduce a lot of administrative work for everyone involved.

• Aberdeen Arts Centre
• Dundee Rep, Dundee
• Eden Court Theatre, Inverness
• His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen
• Nairn Community & Arts Centre, Nairn
• The Barn, Banchory
• The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen
• The Music Hall, Aberdeen
• Universal Hall, Findhorn

Early Selection Poll for Volunteer Promoters

As part of our commitment to cultural democracy, we are introducing an early selection poll for our Volunteer Promoters and Board of Trustees. This poll is designed to gauge interest in various shows and help us create a diverse and engaging menu.

Key Points:

Interest Gauge: The early selection is simply a way to understand which shows our promoters are interested in. It does not guarantee the inclusion or exclusion of any show.

Unlimited Choices: Promoters can select as many shows as they wish, without any limitations.

Inclusive Consideration: Not selecting a show in this poll does not mean it won’t be considered for the final menu. We aim to ensure a wide variety of shows are available.

In 2026 this will be extended to include audience members in the selection process.

We will also consider the following criteria when making our final selection:

Fee: We consider fees very carefully, a low fee is not considered more favourable than a high fee. However, we do place more scrutiny on high fees.

Technical Requirements: Shows with high technical requirements are more tricky for us to accommodate due to the nature of our venues.

Content: Whilst we uphold the right to the freedom of expression we also have a responsibility to ensure that show content is not derogatory, incites hatred or unfairly depicts groups within the protected characteristics. We want our programmes to be inclusive, diverse and accessible. We will, of course, consider work that is challenging or which may make us feel uncomfortable, but only when this is within a safe and respectful context.

Previous History: We will also consider how many times a show has previously been programmed or included in the menu and not selected. Because we try and keep the menu to a respo0nible size, we cannot continue to include productions that don’t appeal to our volunteer promoters.

Genre Diversity: We want our menus to be as diverse and inclusive of as many genres as possible. To do this, we have to balance the number of productions in each category and what we gauge as being of interest to our communities.

Rural audiences, in essence, are no different to urban audiences, just that there’s less of them in a small community compared to a large city. Over the years we have seen a change in what we would term a faithful rural audience who would support every performance at their village hall, seeing it as an opportunity to experience culture, socialise and support their community venue financially.

However, as communities have changed over the years, especially post-pandemic and in light of the cost of living crisis they are much more selective in what they support. Therefore, whilst not every person in a city enjoys attending performances, the same is true in rural communities, and whilst not everyone living in a city likes theatre, musicals, dance, storytelling or music, the same is true in rural communities.

With the rising costs of running a volunteer-led community venue becoming increasingly challenging, it’s understandable that volunteer promoters want to promote shows that bring a whole community together. Whilst NEAT does provide subsidy support, there’s still a financial risk for village halls, and this has become more evident post-pandemic, considering our budget has been at a standstill since 2015.