Overall – Fantastic first
edition. Great parties, social dancing and overall ambiance.
This
congress was run on the same weekend as the Candela 10 year anniversary and
performed well given the steep competition. Throw in the general confusion among the congress set between the February and June congresses and the resulting crowd wasn't quite your usual travelling crowd, but a smaller, more Italian sub-set of it. To my mind, keeping a whole host of dancers away made this festival into the intimate party that it was.
I
would definitely want to go again, not least because of the awesome afternoons
and evenings spent on the festival venue’s rooftop, with food, drinks, friends
and sunshine. Fantastic way to finally welcome the summer. Despite dancing
non-stop, I found this festival to be really quite relaxing!
Priceless
moments:
- Seeing
the “table dancing” and “bar dancing” spotlights upon arrival at the after
party and grasping the venue’s real purpose
- Debating
the meaning of tattoos for hours on end
- My
first and only ever dance with Tito! I still can’t get over the fact that I had
the courage to ask him.
- A
number of dances which will not readily be forgotten
Prices
1.
Flights – Flights to Zurich typically range in the £100-£150,
depending on when you fly and how badly inflation has impacted flight prices by
the time you read this. And that’s assuming you fly after work on Friday night
as well. Upon arrival, trains into the city are cheap and easy to navigate. I
took a train, a bus and a tram (could have probably walked some of that) to my
hotel and while it was a bit of a pain, I certainly never risked getting lost
thanks to the meticulously detailed display screens that can be found inside
and outside every public moving vehicle.
2.
Pass prices – Party passes
were about €90 with a 10% discount. Zurich is typically expensive so much of
that is down to the cost of living in Switzerland.
3.
Hotels – The congress hotel was the Crowne Plaza, a 5 star hotel
housing the artists for which the organisers had secured an event discount. However,
we opted to stay in the Ramada City Hotel which was far cheaper (£20 a night
for 3 in a room) and ten minutes closer to the venue on foot. In fact, our
hotel was a 10 minute walk to the venue, while those staying at the Crowne
Plaza either had to walk further or wait for the organised buses.
4.
Water – I can’t remember, but I think it was 2SFR per bottle…and
then I discovered that they provided tap water upon request. Limited queues at
the bar as well which meant that drinking didn’t take you away from the dance
floor for too long!
Venue
The venue
was a gutted warehouse in the north-west of Zurich (surrounded by car
dealerships). On top of the warehouse there was a rooftop with couches, chairs
and tables and a buffet that served lunch, dinner and a small array of drinks.
This was THE most perfect hang out place, especially since it was sunny! Moreover
the food was cheap (15SFR for a hot meal, salad and soft drink) and easy. There
was a shopping centre nearby with a MacDonald’s and alternative food options as
well.
1.
Floor – The dance floor was perfect wooden floor, laid down for the occasion.
It wasn’t particularly big, but it was perfect for the number of people there.
There was lots of space around the floor for standing and chatting, so the
dance floor was very much for dancing. It did actually get quite hot. But I
think that was because I was dancing a lot…
2.
Number of dance floors – Two dance floors –
On the main floor, the music mixed Cuban, Mambo, Romantica, Cha Cha Cha. The
second floor, which was in the after party room downstairs played Romantica,
Bachata, Kizomba.
3.
Workshops vs. parties – The workshops were
all in the same venue as the parties.
4.
Show seats. There were chairs
if you arrived early for the shows. We sat at the front on the floor on
Saturday and on chairs to the side (also at the front) on Sunday.
5.
Show visibility. Very good from
where I was sitting. There was an upstairs balcony too for those who wanted to
see more from higher up.
6.
Workshop visibility. Very good. The
workshops were generally pretty poorly attended for the quality of the artist
line up. By which I mean, those in the class got a lot of attention and were
able to cover a larger amount of material as well. I walked past the last 15
minutes of the final Adolfo class of the weekend, which turned into a crazy
masterclass as the 20 or so students were almost all professional dancers (all
of Yamulee, all of Adolfo’s dancers, Mitchell Provence, Gosia, etc). Needless
to say Adolfo taught two difficult and long shines and a piece of partnerwork. It
was incredible to watch!
7.
Workshop organisation. Few people were
attending the workshops so there was loads of space. Definitely recommend this
as a great learning environment.
Crowd
1.
Workshops. From what I could
tell, having few people and more room for personal attention was great. I will
confess to spending all my time in the sun on the rooftop though! The Candela
party had a simple line-up including Frankie Martinez, Fernando Sosa and one of
the Vasquez brothers. From what I heard, those workshops were pretty empty too.
2.
Parties There was a very high %
of Italians at this festival. I enjoyed it so much that it has made me think
that I would really enjoy the Milan festivals…! Given the limited attendance by
the locals who were divided between this congress and the Candela party, there
was quite a high percentage of performers as well, many of whom were social
dancing. There was no “us and them” feeling either, which made the parties feel
more inclusive.
There
was a charity gala performed by kids with Down Syndrome on Saturday lunchtime.
Very emotional but beautiful experience.
3.
Size – I would say this was on the small side of medium. Pretty
perfect though – big enough to have new people to dance with every night, small
enough to be able to have repeat dances with your favourites.
4.
After parties – At 4am the parties ended and we moved into the “strip club”
downstairs until 6am – or was it 7am? (it had spotlights shining down on
tables, bar tops etc). They played a little bit of everything down there, but
always ended with salsa, which made it worth my while to stay past the
latin-house and kizomba sections. On the Friday night, the DJs tried playing
one song each and following each other. To my mind this was a disaster as the
amalgamation of tunes didn’t really work, but it was still good fun! Also
convenient: you couldn’t see that it was daylight until you left the building!
Line-up
1.
Quality of teaching – Great. Usual Malo Entertainment line-up including the Milan
posse, Tito & Tamara, Terry & Cecile…
2. Choice of workshops – 4 workshops per
hour, 5 hours of class per day. Classes only on Saturday and Sunday.
3.
Number of shows – Maybe 10-15 shows a night, not more. The shows I saw
(Sat/Sun) were all of high quality and great to watch. I also snuck into the
dress rehearsal on Sunday and it was amazing to see the transformation when it
came to the final performance! This being Switzerland, I don’t need to mention
that it ran like clockwork…
They also
got the touring Cubans from some dance show to come and do a 5 minute rumba
performance instead of the Sunday night Descarga. They were stunning to watch!
4.
Artists on the dance floor. As
I mentioned previously, there were many artists present and many on the dance
floor right through to the end of the night – Grupo Alafia are always great at
this, Gosia, Cecile, Amauri (from Yamulee) are also proper party animals. Slightly
more “drinking and watching” than in say Puerto Rico, but it was generally
understated compared to what I’ve seen elsewhere. The fact that I successfully
managed to walk up to Tito and ask him to dance says a lot about how many of
the world’s great dancers were standing around, on the dance floor and
genuinely happy to dance with randoms (i.e. me!)…
5.
DJs. Willy (Viper), Mauri,
Fabrizio, Zorro, El Malo ran the show and did a fantastic job. Once I got over
my initial surprise at the music mix, I loved the really chilled vibe they had
going on. They had a couple of others do sets (Oz from London, a couple of
local DJs), all of whom were great also.
6. Bands. No
bands, no live music. Normal given the
size of the festival.
Location
1.
Central location? The venue was
about 20 minutes from the Zurich Hauptbahnof using a bus/tram combo.
2.
Distance from the airport – About 15 minutes
by taxi from the airport (cost of £50 I think!) or an hour on public transport,
changing three times (c£5). Obviously your choice will depend on how you value
your time/sleep.
3.
Time to London – 1.5 hours
on a plane approx. Easy. Except I went to St Petersburg for work from Zurich,
which took me three hours and made me get up stupidly early…
4.
Number of days off work. You
only need one, or none at all if you decide to take it easy on Sunday night and
work on Monday…Hmm…perhaps not for you if you plan on going to bed after 6am
every day…
For
more information, check out the website here: http://www.zurichsalsacongress.com/de/
