Overall - My best salsa holiday since Antalya. Seriously made me question why I go to work and don't just do a lifetime of these events. Probably because I need to sleep every once in a while. I would recommend this festival on the basis that it gives you time to hang out with salsa friends, deepen bonds, feel like you're in the most beautiful place on earth and laugh all day long. I can't really speak highly of the dancing itself, but even for the most hardcore of salsa addicts, it is worth putting the Croatian Summer Salsa Festival on your timetable of yearly dance events. The event grows every year and the organisers have made an effort to accommodate all dance styles from Mambo, to Cuban salsa, to Kizomba and Bachata as well. So while it may not rival Berlin or New York on the dancing front, the sheer happiness and party atmosphere that permeate the little town of Rovinj will continue to make this event beyond memorable.
Prices
1. Flights - There are direct flights to Pula and Trieste on Ryanair. I recommend flying to Pula even if this is slightly more expensive, as it means you will avoid a long bus ride at an ungodly hour or the stress that comes with renting a car and driving it in a foreign country. From Pula, taxis cost about 600 Kuna (so somewhere between £12-£15 depending on how many people you can fit into it) and take about half an hour. It's usually cheaper on the way back to the airport (c. 450 Kuna) as you will find it easier negotiating a good rate from the town, especially when you've made Croatian friends along the way.
Beware that Ryanair are very strict on baggage weight - many of us packed too many flip-flops and toiletries and were confronted with the 15kg limit at the check-in desk. Luckily though, there were about 20 of us checking in at the same time, so after three attempts, we managed to spread the load out and take all our shoes and toiletries to Croatia!
Another option is to fly to Venice and take a bus/train/ferry to Rovinj. Note however that the festival takes place one week before the "season" begins so ferries are not as frequent as you might expect and cost c.€65 for a one way ticket. Unless you plan to visit Venice at the same time (I did this one year) or are coming from Paris (no flights to Trieste or Pula from there), this will be more expensive than the alternatives described above. Finally, flying to Slovenia is also a possibility, as is flying to Zagreb, if you have time to spare. Put it this way, people have gone to extreme lengths and taken multiple routes to get to this festival. I even had a friend this year who chose to ride his Harley Davidson all the way from Istanbul. Slightly crackers, but then most of us in the salsa scene are.
2. Pass prices - Party passes were €70 this year and included Thursday-Sunday parties. Entry to the bar on the Monday night after party (most people fly in on Thursday and out on Tuesday) is free. Full pass prices aren't very expensive either (check the website for details) and a discount can be garnered for groups of 10 or more. Note that it's very difficult to stay away from the beach so many people skip the workshops. As a result, they aren't really that busy, despite the number of people attending the festival. Up to you to decide whether you can resist the pull of the sea-side.
3. Hotels - There is an official congress hotel that offers decent rooms and where some of the workshops take place. However, the best option by far, is to rent an apartment, get together with some friends and pay something in the order of €17-€30 per night. The price range will depend on how central you want to be, how early you book and the quality of the flat as well. The hotel rooms cost c.€40 a night per person by comparison. Last year we stayed in a 6 person flat with 2 on sofa beds in the kitchen area, at a 10 minute bike ride from the old town, 5mins away from the nearest shop, which wasn't always open and shared one bathroom for the 6 of us. This year, we booked a "4 star" flat in the Old Town, in front of my favourite pizza restaurant and next door to a convenience store. This also slept 6 people, but the last two were in the attic, with a single and a camp bed and we had a separate kitchen for hanging out at all times (no worrying about people sleeping). We also had two bathrooms which made the party-preparation process much easier, although probably just as lengthy given the pervading sense of relaxation!
4. Water - Drinks at the bar were at reasonable (i.e. Croatian) prices. Note that drinking water is crucial in this congress given the sheer amount of sweating on the dance floor and the constant exposure to sunshine. It seems silly to have to mention this, but a lot of alcohol is consumed and people were getting dehydrated and really quite sick as a result. So be careful!
Venue
1. Floor - Adris Old Tobacco factory for most of the parties. Large venue with spacious floors made of cheap hardwood, installed for the occasion. No issues dancing on it at all, even though some people's floorcraft was less than perfect.
2. Number of dance floors - One for LA/Mambo which mostly which was medium to slow speed, one for Cuban salsa and a kizomba/bachata room.
3. Workshops vs. parties - Different venues, but not really an issue given that the venue for the festival is essentially the town itself. The general vibe for the festival is so relaxed that you'll never feel like you need to be close by to roll out of bed and into a workshop with minimal time loss. In Croatia, it's all about taking it easy.
4. Show seats. No such thing. I successfully skipped all the shows this year but arrived for the closing credits on one of the nights - hundreds sitting on the floor with hundreds standing huddled behind them. You were either uncomfortably squashed or you simply couldn't see.
5. Show visibility. See above
6. Workshop visibility. No idea, I was on the beach during workshop hours or still fast asleep.
7. Workshop organisation. See above.
Crowd
1. Workshops. I got the impression from friends and pictures that they were not that busy but that the level was pretty low. Note that there are pre-festival workshops before the congress which are apparently of a much higher standard. There is a track for on1, on2 and Cuban-style dancers, with Tito and Tamara usually teaching the on2 section. I'm told that the level in the pre-festival workshops is much higher, the classes quite empty and the opportunity to learn, amazing. My Croatian friends tend to go for the pre-festival workshops and then get the party pass for the rest of the week. If I had more time to spare, I think I'd be tempted by this solution too.
2. Parties - Good level of dancing with a fairly limited crowd of advanced dancers, most of which were from London. Always fun though. Weirdly, the parties ended at 3am-4am depending on the day, which to my mind is unnecessarily early and also doesn't allow for any thinning on the dance floor as literally everyone stays till the end.
3. Size - Growing considerably every year. There were about 1,000 people in 2010 and 2,000 in 2011. The difference was palpable. The growth is testament to the power of glowing recommendations - every attendee goes home and tells a friend (or ten!). The reviews are so positive, everyone returns with an extra person by their side (and yes, it's one of those where you just have to go back). Not sure where they will put another 1,000 people next year. Or where these people will be sleeping...
4. After parties - Disappointingly, there were no formal after parties. When the venue stopped playing music at 3am or 4am, people slowly puddled out onto the sidewalk out front and hung around "saying goodbye" for up to 3 or 4 hours more. Someone would invariably drive their car over, turns the engine on, open the doors and plays bachata/zouk/kizomba until the early hours. It was a great way to wind down and cool off after much dancing. Given the asphalt though, there was only a limited possibility for salsa, with a couple of ruedas being danced by the more energetic amongst us. On Monday, the unofficial after party takes place every year in Havana Bar, the Latin music playing outdoor bar on the street between the venue and the old town. Great for drinking and mingling, very little dancing takes place (I still managed to dance a lot) and there was yet another bachata after-party in the street when this closed down at 2pm, and another 2-hour "goodbye" session that salsa people specialise in. Personally, I would prefer one final night of proper dancing with a purpose-built floor and hired DJ, but the alternative was good fun too.
Line-up
1. Quality of teaching - Not sure, though there were better names there this year than last year. Still not enough to convince me away from the beach though. To be honest, this festival is NOT about the artists, but about the stunning location and the ability to socialise with your salsa peers.
2. Choice of workshops - No idea. Sorry!
3. Number of shows - Skipped all of them, but think there were quite a few. Given the varied line-up, the shows would have been fairly varied in music and style.
4. Artists on the dance floor. Not that many. They generally hung out in the artist changing area round the back of the stage and had their own personal parties there, coming out to dance every so often with us mere mortals. As I mentioned above, the artists aren't really the focus in this festival and their presence on the social dance floor is neither hyped, nor expected. A number of artists came for a holiday, including Anya from SalsaLibre in Poland, Anichi from Germany and Terry from Paris. Terry tirelessly social danced his way through the weekend and he wasn't even on payroll. Totally respect his dedication.
5. DJs. DJ Willy (Holland) and DJ Shaan (UK) kept the party going every night. Somehow Thursday night was beyond amazing, Friday was awful (for me and many others, but perhaps the exhaustion from barely sleeping for two days caught up with us?), and the last two nights were respectable. Shaan also played all afternoon on the Monday boat party (epic tunes!). DJ Javier (London/Cuba) did a great job with the Cuban room and the Sunday pool party as well.
6. Bands. Manolito Simonet y su Trabuco played, but I think I was busy eating/sleeping/getting ready because I only managed to catch a couple of songs.
Extras (that make this congress stand out)
1. Beaches. No sand, mostly rock or pebbles, many people buy "sea-shoes" to permit easier wading in the shallows. Sea temperature was perfect, cool and refreshing without being cold.
2. Pool party. This is, for many, the main reason for going to the Croatia Summer Salsa Festival. At 1pm on Sunday, everybody hops aboard taxi boats and is ferried to an island with only a 5 star hotel on it. This hotel has four pools. One pool is for swimming, but the others are generally shallow enough to allow for some form of dancing. A DJ booth is set up and plays party tunes all afternoon (MJ, salsa, bachata, merengue, reggaeton, you name it). Alcohol flows. The salsa people dance. It generally tends to go a little crazy and usually involves a lot of line-dancing and a re-enactment of the MJ Thriller video. By 6pm, the music stops and everyone grabs a ride back to the mainland for dinner and the final official congress party. Most of them still drunk and highly uninhibited. No words will do the Pool Party justice, but suffice to say, it convinced many that the CSSF was worth returning to, whether the rest of the festival took place or not.
3. Boat trip. This year, for the first time, a boat trip was organised for the Monday following the festival. A boat for 120 people was initially booked, but the organisers were forced to book another bigger boat when they realised that there was massive demand. The trip involved boarding the boat, having lunch and dancing on the boat prior to reaching another town called Porec. There we got off, had ice-cream, danced a few ruedas, walked up to see the church and back down again for a very quick swim before boarding the boat once more. Porec is in no way as beautiful as Rovinj but the trip is short and the main point of the boat trip is the dancing that takes place abord the boat - comparable to the pool party, without the water, but with quite a lot of tables and poles involved and not very much footwork! The boats stopped off in a cove on the way back to allow the day-trippers to summersault off the top and into the water in death-defying acts of bravery and much laughter. Another happy day in Croatia!
4. Final party night. I think I've mentioned this already, but Monday night doesn't have an organised salsa party, just an informal gathering at the local Latin bar which gets completely overrun with salsa dancers. Interesting to network, hang out, drink, dance a little and generally say goodbye to all your friends. Not so great when you see all these lovely dancers hanging around and don't have the dance floor or music to scratch your itch. And yes, after 4 nights of dancing until 6am, I still want to dance! I managed to have a fair few flip-flop dances with my Egyptian friends though which left me with a smile.
5. Bikes - I fully recommend renting a bike to get around town quickly. They are not expensive and very safe to leave around. They also help you get to the further, quieter beaches if that's what you want to do. Otherwise, accept that you will have lengthy walks round the port that take at least forty minutes a time because of the sheer number of people you meet and/or collect along the way (also a fun option!).
Location
1. Central location? Everything is located in the cute little seaside town of Rovinj. Everything can be accessed within a 10 minute bike ride, or 20 minute walk (depending on how fast you walk). The site is ideal and generally, the fact that everything is nicely spaced out means that you can spend time with hundreds of salsa dancers or get away and find a quiet beach depending on your mood. It also allows for a lazy discovery of the town and its surroundings as you slowly amble through it on a daily basis.
2. Distance from the airport - 30 mins in a taxi from Pula. Two hours in a bus from Trieste (I think).
3. Time to London - Approximately 2 hours on a direct flight.
4. Number of days off work. Four days required - Thursday, Friday, Monday, Tuesday. This coincides with the Ryanair flight schedule to Pula. It's possible to leave on Monday from Trieste, but this just means you miss out on the Monday boat party and Monday night chill-out session which, in my mind, are an essential part of the festival.
