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There was a bit of a dream-come-true moment last night for a group of regular Celtic Connections visitors from Ireland, who come every year and take in not just one but both Transatlantic Sessions shows. They were relaxing in the Holiday Inn bar after last night’s gig, one of them with a guitar, singing a few songs – when in walked most of the Transatlantic performers, and thus our Irish friends finished up their night sharing a table and some more songs with Raul Malo and Declan O’Rourke, among others. Particular treats included O’Rourke singing an apparently stunning, as yet unrecorded new song about the Irish famine: one to look out for on his next album, perhaps.

While the staff at the Holiday Inn may be mightily relieved in some respects when the Celtic Connections madness finally comes to an end on Sunday – the poor late-night bartenders, for instance, or the chambermaids, for whom it takes an average of twice as long as usual to clean a departing festival guest’s room, so thoroughly do our visitors make themselves at home – there’s no denying that it brightens January considerably for them as well as the rest of us, whether it’s the often world-class impromptu music in the bar to enliven a shift, or the mere fact of 100 covers in the restaurant on a January Monday night. And one of the best compliments of all, from the hotel’s general manager, as he generally sang the praises of how pleasant the Celtic crowd had been to deal with: “We’ve not had a single bit of grief from anyone the entire time.”

Speaking of final flings – there’s one last chance to catch BBC Radio 3 live at the Late Night Sessions tonight.  Hosted by Mary Ann Kennedy in the Exhibition Hall (10pm-3am, £6), the star studded line-up features the sensational New Orleans singer Meschiya Lake, Shetland fiddler Kevin Henderson and Skipinnish fresh from their sold out gig in the Strathclyde Suite this evening.