On the International Turkish Salsa Festival - Antalya 2011

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/

€1. Apparently mojitos cost €15 because of the high alcohol taxes in Turkey, so getting drunk on-site for those who are that way inclined may not be the best way forward!

Marc Anthony live

In this link you can see Mark Anthony singing Aguanile at the American Idol 2011 final. Awesome stuff!

Aguanile live

On MamboCity's 5 Star Salsa Congress 2011

Overall

Great congress. Well organised, great location and fantastic music. It was like a big SOS with more people, more time to dance and better artists. Pitfalls were a serious lack of powerful air conditioning and rubbish after parties (at least there were after parties though!). The location is great for anyone coming from Heathrow but doesn't really favour those who live in the centre of London. Still, it's so close to home that it's unavoidable and totally worth the small hassle of getting there!

I only did the parties this year so cannot comment on all aspects, but here are my thoughts regarding my common congress-comparison criteria.

Prices

1. Flights - Easily accessible from Heathrow, the ultimate transport hub. Free buses from Heathrow too (5mins down the road). What's not to love? No flights needed for Londoners!

2. Pass prices - Not at all bad. Party pass was £55, which seems cheap, but note that this didn't include shows (well, there was a video screen outside if you really wanted to see them). Also while the after parties ended at 6am, barely anything other than kizomba and bachata was played. Full pass prices are reasonable, especially given recent weakness of the pound. Moreover, the Radisson (venue hotel) is affordable and the room prices include a buffet breakfast.

3. Hotels - I would recommend that anyone coming to the congress stay at a hotel on Bath Road (i.e. within 10mins walk of the Radisson), with the ideal solution being the Radisson itself. Breakfast opens at 6am following the after party. It's a buffet style food offering and smells amazing. Not as great as the breakfast I raved about in Karlsruhe but well timed and plentiful all the same. The single beds in the Radisson are very narrow, but do the trick. Most of my friends appear to repeatedly stay in the Ibis, which I understand is cheaper.

4. Water - Jugs of water all around the venue for dancers to rehydrate between dances were much appreciated. Especially since the air conditioning clearly was not made to handle hundreds of dancers and it was pretty steamy on the dance floor!

Venue

1. Floor - Built for the congress. Temporary wooden floor, no one had any issues with it. It was one of those rare events where the floor was so right that no one even bothered to talk about it!

2. Number of dance floors - Three. Mambo floor, Cuban salsa floor, Kizomba/after party room. I once went hunting for water in the Cuban room and it seemed to be quite busy, but otherwise I was so happy with the mambo room and the bar/water/hang out area just outside it that it never occurred to me to go looking anywhere else. There may well have been a bachata or other room, but I was too busy dancing to find it!

3. Workshops vs. parties - All in the same venue. I believe there were 5 workshops per hour, but you'd have to check the website for full details. Last year, some of the more popular workshops (e.g. Juan Matos, Santo Rico, Karel Flores) were really busy, but others were somewhat smaller and more intimate. Workshops started around 11am and went through to 6pm. There was a power cut at around 4pm on Sunday afternoon, but the workshops continued anyway, despite delaying everything by about an hour.

4. Show seats. I missed the shows this year because I only had a party pass. Last year we all piled onto the floor at the front of the stage. I remember there being a great vibe from really being able to cheer the performers on. VIPs are given seats (and perhaps those who are really quick to enter the room as well, though not sure).

5. Show visibility. Great in my past experience. You actually also had a great view from the screens they set up outside if you found yourself outside waiting and badly timed your arrival. This happened to us on Sunday because of the power cut which delayed the shows. The only thing you couldn't hear was the microphone chat, but speakers played the music during the shows. Missing out on the various intros and jokes wasn't too bad and at least we didn't feel rude for ignoring the speaker!

6. Workshop visibility. No comment, I was fast asleep during workshop hours. Or busy having breakfast and serial drinking mugs of tea!

7. Workshop organisation. See above.

Crowd

1. Workshops. No idea, I guess you had to be there!

2. Parties - Medium to high level of dancing. Apparently there's a rumour in among Paris dancers that only old ladies can be found social dancing at MamboCity. Let me just say that that is categorically untrue! Level-wise, it's like SOS but multiplied in numbers and with a much larger contingent of on2 dancers. I might have danced on1 twice over the course of the weekend and maybe a bachata (not by design!) but I can't say I remember either. In my personal opinion, there were not enough foreigners, but there were some very readily available and friendly artists who contributed to my dance floor happiness. I like discovering new and amazing dance partners at congresses and generally find that this doesn't really happen at UK events, however, this lack of surprise was surprisingly comfortable and relaxing.

3. Size - Medium. You never got lost, you could always find people. Except Steve. For some reason, I'm always looking for Steve however large the congress. Not sure quite how he manages to disappear all the time since he's not the smallest guy in the world. Generally though, there was always room on the dance floor, however hot it became and there were minimal accidents as a result.

4. After parties - Held downstairs in a smaller room. Terrible choice of music (mostly kizomba, semba et al) and very little salsa played. No choice but to hang around and wait for non-kizomba, especially when you're waiting for the tube to open to head back into London. I was fortunate enough to get a ride from some very generous gentlemen (on all three nights), but still, the yearning for one more dance kept us there much longer than the music should have!

Line-up

1. Quality of teaching - Good from what I could tell: Eddie Torres, Juan Matos, Adolfo all present. Previous years have had Yamulee and Santo Rico instead of Eddie. A great many local teachers too. Doesn't measure up to Berlin or Zurich in terms of numbers, but still some very decent names.

2. Choice of workshops - Not quite enough to make me opt for a full pass, but it's always worth going to Eddie's, Adolfo's and Juan's classes!

3. Number of shows - None on Friday, bunch on Saturday and bunch on Sunday. As a party pass holder, I missed them all. You'd have to ask someone who sat through them whether their bum got sore!

4. Artists on the dance floor. Other than Eddie who no longer social dances and Juan who simply likes to stand around and drink, the Italians were out in full force (Latin Soul Dancers, Marco Ferrigno's Group and Grupo Alafia), Terry from Paris and Brian Lieber never stopped dancing. Others were around and generally willing too. I think the Italian ladies were slightly less available, but the men could generally be found and easily approached on the dance floor.

5. DJs. Big shout out to Julian the Duke, aka "The best DJ in the Universe" for amazing sets on Saturday and Sunday. He was helped by someone else with whom he tried to share the credit, but I can't remember who it was. One of the Italian artists spent most of Saturday on Shazaam (i-phone application that listens to songs and tells you the name and artist) because he loved every song and needed to commit each one to memory! If it weren't for the sheer heat in the main room, I probably would never have stopped dancing to notice this... On Friday, the music was less good, so I won't name and shame the DJs, but there was some annoying track mixing going on and way too much salsa romantica at around 3am. The crowd wanted faster songs at that point and palpable frustration could be felt. It definitely helped highlight the quality of the music choice on the following two nights though!

6. Bands. No live bands. However, the video "La Epoca - The Lost Rhythms in Salsa" was shown on Friday night (instead of having shows). This was a highly educational documentary about salsa music in the Palladium era and would have been great had it been less long winded (by say being 45mins shorter) and less judgmental. Telling 200 dancers that they are doing it wrong prior to a congress doesn't really go down too well…But then again, had I not been desperately hungry and increasingly starving during the whole thing, perhaps I would have been more receptive?!

Location

1. Central location? Multiple conversations I had went like this:

Random person: "Did you have to come far to get here?"

Me: "Yes, I came from London"

Random person: "But we're in London"

Me, uneasy: "No, we're not!"

Random person: "Where are we then?"

Me: "We're in Greater London, Zone 6, or the sticks, this doesn't count as London, it's not central enough"

You get the idea. 50mins by tube from Zone 1 (i.e. "home") is not central. In fact, anything outside of Zone 1 is not central, since by definition, it is not in the centre. Yep, I'm a Zone 1 snob. But seriously, there's not a shop within walking distance, the closest and only pub/food option that isn't hotel related is a 10min walk and there's no way you can walk outside and hail a taxi or even walk to the closest tube station. Having said that, everything (food, beds, dancing, workshops) can be found within the hotel and thus MamboCity qualifies for the "centralised location" criteria!

2. Distance from the airport - 5mins ride on a free red bus. Really practical for those coming from abroad, not so great for those who live in London, wish to arrive by Eurostar or are coming via another airport. Personally, as someone who loves flying around the world, I find it pretty difficult to make it all the way to Heathrow and then NOT board a plane. First-world-problem style torture!

3. Time to London. 50 minutes. Or 30 minutes at 7am when your wonderful friend drop you home.

4. Number of days off work. None. Conveniently timed over a May bank holiday, for all my moaning about it being a 50 minute ride out of London, this congress is simply unavoidable. Check for next year though as it's not always over a bank holiday weekend. However, whether you're planning on doing the whole thing, a day or just the parties, it's definitely one that shouldn't be missed!

For more information, check out the website here: http://www.mambocity.co.uk/congress/