On Ubuntu Salsa Festival - Paris, June 2012

On the topic of Ubuntu, I don’t think it’s worth me using my usual categories as the congress was so “special” in so many ways that a post with paragraphs entitled “what went wrong with Ubuntu?” seems more appropriate. So let me try instead to provide a number of anecdotes which should hopefully paint a better picture than my usual method.

Expectations?

Ubuntu was highly marketed and widely promoted thanks to its stellar line-up, fantastic location in central Paris, only “200m from the Eiffel tower” and the presence of the multitude of awesome French dancers. The promotion was made even easier for the UK crowd thanks to the Jubilee bank holiday weekend and ease of the Eurostar. Throw in the prospect of walks along the Seine, picnics in the Spring sunshine and great coffees/croissants and it was an easy sell. Expectations were high, thousands of experienced dancers headed to Paris.

First impressions?

The festival started late. By this I mean that when yours truly rocked up on Friday night at 11h45, hoping to waltz in, catch a couple of the final shows and start dancing, she discovered a line of salsa dancers that went round the block. It turns out that most of them had been waiting outside since before 9pm, when the doors were due to open, but had not yet been let in, issued a pass or seen a single show! Further investigation led to the discovery of some interesting facts. Namely that volunteers to man the bar for the event had been sought out as late as 6pm on the very day of the festival and that the volunteers manning the cloakroom had nowhere to store the cash they were collecting. Small things were wrong with many a piece of the organisation puzzle. No matter, things started moving 3 hours after the official start time and people started piling into the venue.

Not-so-perfect venue

Soon after piling in, we realised that while in a super central location within the walls of the city, and while it looked great from the foyer, the venue was not typical of a usual festival. Namely that the main festival hall was in fact a long rectangular room. Imagine a room where you can put 20 chairs side by side before you run out of space. Now imagine being able to put rows of chairs until you have so many that those at the back can barely see anything. That’s roughly what it was like. The room split into a kizomba and salsa room (split lengthwise, thankfully) and a corridor ran outside the two rooms.

Not enough space

A victim of their marketing success, the festival organisers quickly discovered that the room provided wasn’t big enough for the number of people who showed up. On Friday night, given the late start and multitude of shows, it was 2am before the social dancing started. People stood around waiting for others to head home so they could get some space for a dance. For those who tried movements had to be restricted in order to avoid bruises. Before the crowd could shrink, the party came to an abrupt end, leaving many frustrated from having danced but 2 or 3 songs. 

On Saturday, the party carried on past 4am to the relief of many (as the social dancing had also started way past 2am). However, as the salsa room started to empty and many a dancer started enjoying the new found space at the back of the room, the venue staff started re-sizing the room. They were shifting the fake wall partition forward – with no regard to the songs or dancers. Imagine: you’re dancing, having a wonderful time because you finally feel able to express yourself without worrying about a stray arm, heel, foot or elbow. Then, some random guy starts moving a wall into your dance space in the rudest, most indelicate of manners and pushing you into other dancers’ space. They did this consistently over half an hour or so, admonishing and pushing the dancers as they went.

No music

The main anecdote that defines this congress though was having the DJ run off with the musical equipment. There was no music for over 2 hours on the Saturday night of the congress and once restored they had teething problems for another hour within which the music kept stopping mid-song.

To the innocent bystander, it looked like this – You’re halfway through a 2 hour show slot and your attention is flagging. They start announcing shows without the microphone. Magna’s music doesn’t start on time. Then someone announces that there will be no shows and no further party as there is no longer a music system. Except you didn’t quite hear that through the uproar since they unplugged the microphone a few shows prior to that happening…An hour of sitting around and wondering what was happening ensued. Many moved outside into the street, attracting passing police who came to investigate why so many people were standing outside. Then the artists started doing their shows without music. When the music finally started up again, most of the artists did their shows again! It's only after that that the social dancing began and lasted for a grand maximum of 3 hours. Now consider that the one-night-only entrance price for this party was €45. No refunds were provided.

What was happening behind the scenes – The organiser hired a sound and light company but couldn’t offer them access to the venue 24 hours prior to the event to set up. The company claimed breach of contract and pulled out. At the last minute, the organiser called around and found a DJ who was happy to rent and provide the necessary sound equipment, but had to pull a few strings to do so and required payment upfront. The offer was accepted but no payment was provided. The equipment was installed and the event kicked off (after the delays mentioned above) but still no payment was provided. Having chased a couple of times and been provided no positive response, the DJ in question started unplugging his equipment (starting with the microphone) and eventually walked off with it. Having failed to convince the organiser to stump up the cash, the other (Parisian) DJs pulled together the cash necessary to pay for the equipment and “save the congress”. Ultimately, they saw this as a source of embarrassment for their city's event and wanted to ensure that their reputations were not ruined by the affiliation with a congress which sent participants home on a Saturday night. To this day, as far as I am aware, none of them have been refunded.

The rainbows in the storm – While undoubtedly problematic, these events brought a number of positive elements to light:

-  Very few people left the party – despite the issues and the lack of communication as to what was happening, people stuck around, kept smiles on their faces and found ways to grit their teeth and enjoy the moment

 - The DJs should be applauded for their role in wanting the opportunity to showcase the best that Paris has to offer
- The artists really came together on stage to do their shows without music or create rumba shows to the audience clapping to the clave. This brought a whole new dimension to the Shakespearian mantra “the show must go on”
-  We all discovered the most amazing coconut ice cream sold within the venue by an artisan producer
- We got to have unprecedented pictures of ourselves at a congress with hair and make-up in the right place and no sweat marks to be seen! (ok, now I’m starting to clutch at straws)

Organisational flaws

I’m told most of the other issues were linked to the fact that one man was in charge but did not adequately delegate to wider group of assistants or volunteers. Instead of letting everyone know what was going on and giving them the power to make even small decisions on their own, one person had to be relied upon for everything. This created both bottlenecks and oversights. Artists were left at their hotel and not brought to workshops on time, issues escalated because they weren't dealt with fast enough.

Apparently only selected artists were paid, none of the local French artists received compensation. Magna posted a stark note on her Facebook page in August 2012 saying that she would not be attending the 2013 event on the basis that she had not been paid for her services in 2012. I’m told the plan was to pay the artists as tickets were sold for next year’s event – I’m unsure how well that’s going. Yes. They actually thought it would be a good idea to have another go. It can go only get better, right?

Conclusions

For some, the party picked up on Sunday night when things finally started to run reasonably well. After the previous two days’ experiences, partygoers were well-invested in getting a good dose of fun out of the evening. The Sunday night party stood out as a brilliant night for many, but alas, this was only when positioned relatively to the other two parties from the Ubuntu festival. Some partygoers still returned home deeply disappointed.

Ultimately my decision not to return to Paris for this festival in 2013 has little to do with the organisational mishaps and lot to do with the fact that the odd Sunday night at O’Sullivans often provides better access to Parisian dancers than a congress attended by throngs of beautiful foreign females. However it remains true that the competitive nature of the congress market in which salsa dancers are able to attend one of 4+ events per weekend leaves little room for highly priced, poorly organised events; even ones with astounding dancers, phenomenal DJs and dream line-ups.