‘Virtual pub’ members celebrate meeting in person for the first time with three-day party in Perth

dailyrecord.co.uk:

One hundred and thirty people from across the world who became part of a ‘virtual pub’ created in lockdown two years ago threw a three-day party in Perth this month to celebrate meeting in person for the very first time. ‘The Stagger Inn’ regulars, from the rest of Scotland and England to Belgium and America, finally met at the Salutation Hotel on the weekend of April 15-17 for an extravaganza of games, singing, dancing, fancy dress and fundraising.The story of the virtual community began in 2020 during the first lockdown where a young musician called Ewan Galloway, from Dalkeith, was jobless.

Hearing that recording music is good for mental health he began to play his accordion on an online stream.For 10 weeks he played every day of the week and quickly gathered an enthusiastic following of people spread thousands of miles apart who were struggling with the isolation caused by the pandemic.Over the next few months Ewan’s playing evolved into a weekly event on a Friday night called ‘Friday Fun Night’, where he played for up to five hours while the virtual audience made requests and chatted together.In time this became the Stagger Inn where over 400 individuals became members, from as far and wide as Sweden, Norway, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, America, Germany and the Netherlands.Ewan also organised a weekly virtual country dance session playing country dance music.As restrictions eased Ewan organised the ‘Stagger Inn on the Road’ event at the Salutation Hotel where many of the virtual family got the chance to greet and dance together for the first time.Sarah Horne, a Stagger Inn regular who helped organise the event, said that Perth was chosen as most of the members live in Scotland and its central location