Overall - It was awesome! I know I say this about every congress, but they are each memorable in their own way and I can't help but love every experience. The Antalya Salsa Festival stood out because it was more relaxing than usual congresses, more like a holiday with fun in the sun, live concerts and dancing as a bonus. More time was spent by the pool and on the beach than dancing and this is what made the festival. We spent our days sitting outside drinking tea, chatting to other dancers from around the world, playing beach volleyball or ping pong and sweating it out in the turkish baths, saunas and steam rooms of our hotel. Throw in the sunshine, the all inclusive hotel deal, social dancing artists and three live concerts by la Excelencia and you've got a very successful event!
Prices
1. Flights - Expensive. The cheapest options involve going for a longer period and flying on charter flights (Antalya is a holiday destination), flying via Istanbul or via Germany. I went via Dusseldorf on the way there and flew Easyjet straight home on the way back. Note that it is well worth taking the time and trouble to get there! Unfortunately this is not a congress where you can fly in on Friday and out on Monday, but given the set-up and the focus on "summer holiday fun", it's worth turning up earlier and taking the time to relax into it. Not sure whether it's worth turning up much before Wednesday though as it sounded like the parties were slightly dead on Monday/Tuesday.
2. Pass prices - Reasonable. Hotel and pass prices were wrapped up in one all-inclusive price. Workshop passes were not a huge amount on top of the hotel. I believe the shift between party and full pass was €40.
3. Hotels - I would recommend that anyone coming to the festival stay in the Adora Hotel. That's where we stayed and we benefitted from a fantastic all-inclusive formula. By comparison, our friends at the Barcelo had a "full board" formula where they were fed but had to pay for their own snacks and drinks. Both hotels had private beaches, pools, spas/fitness centers, shops, restaurants inside. They were essentially fully developed resorts of a decent quality. The buffet at our hotel was plentiful and served many Turkish specialties. Our mini-bar was free and restocked every day. Our room was cleaned daily, despite the fact that we were always in it and fast asleep the first 3 times that room service came knocking on our door every morning. Finally, there was a 24 hour bar which served anything you wanted round the clock and was perfect for hanging out both late into the afternoon and during the early morning hours of the after parties.
4. Water - Free in our hotel as part of the all-inclusive deal. At the venue, we had to buy water bottles for
Venue
1. Floor - Purpose built for the congress. One rectangular area with a perfect floor, a round dance floor in front of the bar that was very slippery, marble around it that was slightly less slippery but had some flower designs that could stop a triple spin in its tracks. Another area around a center piece was quite slippery and generally used only by 2 or 3 dancers at a time. Finally sliding doors all around led to outside wooden decks. The main dance floor was conventional and somewhat small by congress standards, but all the additional areas and the fact that it was never too crowded meant that there was always somewhere lovely to dance.
2. Number of dance floors - I described dance floor "pieces" above. Note however that these were all inter-connected and plugged into the same DJ equipment, so were essentially part of one extended dance floor.
3. Workshops vs. parties - All in the same venue. I think there were 4 consecutive workshops per day, with 2 in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. While I spent most of my time by the pool, I believe those who did the workshops also managed to spend much of their time outside, although they might well all have been skipping 50% of the workshops since there were so many people around the pool! Note that a number of workshops were held outside, so at times people were too hot and at others they were rained on. I think this added to the vibe though, so don't let it detract you!
4. Show seats. There was an area in front of the stage with proper seats, but this was only for those who arrived really early. On the other side of the pool, bean bag chairs, wicker chairs, steps and concrete flower pots provided ample space from which to sit and enjoy the shows. Two large screens provided close-ups of the stage as it was a little far away. However, most of the time, while the equipment was top-notch, the cameraman left a lot to be desired, providing swooping images of crowd and artists without really allowing you to focus on the interesting details of the performance (faces and feet). Great ambiance nonetheless, though if going, make sure you take something with long sleaves to avoid getting a chill (especially if wearing a short dress underneath!)...
5. Show visibility. Good visibility from all angles, though we were a little far from the stage and our screams could probably not be as well heard by the artists as those of the people sitting at the front.
6. Workshop visibility. No idea, I was on the beach during workshop hours
7. Workshop organisation. See above.
Crowd
1. Workshops. No idea, I guess you had to be there!
2. Parties - Average level of dancing with a few great dancers. Generally a haven for on1 dancers with many who couldn't tell their 1 from their 5. Still, the ambiance was great and smiles plentiful, but you definitely had to know the crowd to find the hidden gems! Luckily, my friends from Switzerland had done some scoping prior to my arrival and found some great local dancers who they promptly introduced me to. A couple of my Egyptian friends successfully pointed me in the direction of the good Dubai/Lebanon dancers. And finally the DJs and artists were all wonderfully approachable and enthusiastic.
3. Size - Medium. It was spread out and seemed pretty packed from Friday to Sunday night at the parties, but there was always much room to dance and you could always go outside to cool down if you got too hot and sweaty.
4. After parties - Parties ended at 3am on Wednesday and 5am (or later) on all other nights. One night there was a fire show mid party. On Saturday they had some kind of RnB showdown that was thoroughly unnecessary and involved two scantily clad women dancing (random!). Most people were slightly confused by the need to have these women on artificial podiums when the real stars were Jazzy, Tarek, Melissa and Mike - natural born entertainers who didn't need too much encouragement to put on a show for us. Somehow watching salsa performers that we know (and for the most part love) do hip hop, is way more fun than watching two random women in their underwear. Luckily, the DJ reverted back to salsa after a rather short (and baffling) interlude. There were no official after parties once the music stopped at 5am, however we regrouped, made it back to the 24-hour bar in our hotel and lazily drank tea/coffee/more alcohol (depending on your tipple of choice) until the later hours of the morning (i.e. until breakfast, or until the sun really looked like it was getting too high in the sky!)...
Line-up
1. Quality of teaching - Good, varied. Not quite enough big names to convince me away from the beach/pool area!
2. Choice of workshops - See above.
3. Number of shows - 12 on Friday, none on Saturday due to rain and an inability to watch the shows on the stage outside, 24 on Sunday (or that's what it felt like anyway!)…On Saturday we were given an impromptu West Coast Swing demo by Jordan and Tatianna as well. All shows were in a block and started about an hour later than scheduled, which was reasonably convenient for those of us arriving late!
4. Artists on the dance floor. The DJs and artists were mostly all dancing. Magna and Terry were tireless at the beginning of the festival and did a really good job of keeping at it until the end. The boys from African Jet did a great job too. Neeraj managed to stay relatively clear of the dance floor until Sunday when he was rather amusingly swamped by women. The poor guy could not even walk off the dance floor in between songs! He was a wonderful sport though and smiled through every dance, much to the appreciation of all those who had patiently waited all weekend for the milli-second of opportunity of asking him for a dance.
5. DJs. Much appreciation goes to DJ Willy (Paris), DJ Willy (Holland), DJ Cisko (Belgium) and DJ Sezar (Norway) for their brilliant play lists. The music was perfect - predominantly mambo with the occasional Cuban, cha cha cha and bachata. Romantica was played whenever things got a little too steamy and a change of pace was needed. My only complaint was that DJ Willy (Paris) wasn't playing at all on Sunday, because this meant that he stayed in his hotel and wasn't present to grace me with a final dance!
6. Bands. La Excelencia came over from NYC and played two concerts on the amazingly massive outside stage and one shorter concert inside on Saturday when it was raining. Having the band play inside made for a great ambiance as the dancers could really get close to the band. Sadly, I spent most of this particular set drying following a rather close bachata! I cannot emphasise how much fun La Excelencia are to dance too - their songs weren't unbelievably long, they sang with huge amounts of energy and kindly invited the artists and dancers to share the stage with them. Obviously, their music requires no comment - it's simply awesome (imho)!
Here are clips of the band playing Unidad and Deja de Criticar on Sunday:
Location
1. Central location? Workshops and parties in the Tat golf club, accommodation 10-15mins walk away, with free shuttles available at regular intervals. My only comment would be that it might be better to have all participants stay in one hotel rather than in two as it was not encouraged for guests of one hotel to visit the those staying in the other one.
2. Distance from the airport - 30 mins in a pre-organised shuttle.
3. Time to London. 4 hours on a direct flight, much longer if you can't get one!
4. Number of days off work. Three days required - Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. For those of us fortunate enough to live in the UK, the Monday was a bank holiday! Note that due to the jubilee next year, this bank holiday has been moved to the 4th June so four days off are likely to be required.
For more information, check out the website here: http://www.salsafestivalturkey.com/
