Zombies, firemen, and cowboys in kilts strutted their stuff on the Haddington dance floor on Saturday – all in the name of a good cause!

Saturday night saw the Corn Exchange filled to capacity for the Let’s Dance For Haddington event.

Six local groups – involving Haddington Pipe Band, Haddington Fire Brigade, Guide leaders, The Bridge Theatre Company, Haddington traders and Knox Academy’s Venus – came together to dance their socks off, competing for the Events Trophy and to help the Haddington Events Group raise money for the Haddington Christmas lights.

Jim Anderson from the Events Group and East Coast FM was the compere for the evening, with supporting entertainment from the Ward School of Irish Dance, last year’s Stars in Your Eyes winner Geraldine Cody, and Lynn’s Liners.

The crowd were wowed by some eye-catching perfomances, from zombies to kilted cowboys, and in the end the trophy was lifted by Haddington Pipe Band, whose final performance had the crowd on their feet with a roof-raising chorus of stamping feet, clapping and whistles.

But rather than hang on to their £200 cash prize, the pipe band generously gave it back to the Christmas lights fund, helping to raise the total for the night’s fundraising efforts to £2,500.

Last year the new Christmas lights system on High Street cost £21,512 and this year, the Events Group are continuing adding lights to High Street and beginning the lights on Market Street.

The cost of doing this is greater than the town’s community council can afford, leading to the Events Group working to raise money throughout the year.

The Events Group consists of Jan Wilson, Pat Lemmon, Graeme Samuels, Ruth Moncrieff, Lorraine Dickson, Betty Simpson, Elizabeth McFern, Robert Moran, Paul Darling, Robert Flood and a representative of Haddington and District Business Association. The committee are all volunteers who give up their time to organise the events with the goal of helping the community.

Mrs Lemmon said: “As usual the amount of work put into this event by the Events Group and its helpers has left me very humble.

“I applaud everyone for all their hard work. Huge thanks to all the groups that took part to make it such a great show, the Ward School of Irish Dance, Lynn’s Liners and Geraldine Cody for being our professional entertainment, all the people who worked behind the scenes and the equipment supplied to us from the Bridge Centre and Knox Academy, the businesses and the individuals who supplied raffle prizes and the community itself for supporting this event, and special thanks to Robert Moran, who sponsored the programme through Blooming Haddington. Thanks again to everyone.

“We look forward to the community supporting us at the Haddington Fireworks display, Christmas in Haddington for the turning on of the Christmas lights and our special Hogmanay night in Haddington – more details to follow shortly.”