Festival and Travel Planner 2025

Smejmoon said:
I've danced with Tatiana, she's really good. I went to bachata festival (15 minutes by bicycle) paid and danced couple dances with Gatica. Wow dances each of them, I left right after.
Ataca y La Alemana are great salsa dancers. There is kizomba star who sometimes asks me for salsa in festivals, I forgot name, but amazing dancer. Singaporean wcs, bachata stars are all great in salsa. Troy from Troy and Jorjet puts salsa videos from southern US in YouTube all the time. Both dance great.
Basically there are many pros in other dances who are great salsa dancers, they just barely go to events where they are not paid, so you might not know of them. Also you might not notice until you talk to them, since they will fit in.
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Initial set of bachata stars all came from salsa.

I don’t know anything about sensual.

There are many people who dance great multiple dances. By great I mean at very high level. But if you are a pro you have to pick your poison - which dance you will focus on to make money.
 
Offbeat said:
They have to pay for their own accomodation and buy performer’s pass. I don’t know how much a performer’s pass costs. It is usually discounted to 50% of the full congress pass (in most USA congresses). That would probable mean $115ish?

101 performer -if average per performance is two people that would net the organizer 200x115=$23,000. Hmm that’s impressive for single day collection.

I don’t know how many performers were there over three days - Fri, Sat, Sun. But I will assume that with room sharing, the performers booked at least 100 rooms at the venue. Organizers don’t get cut of revenues from the hotel for room bookings. Instead if the booking reaches minimum number of rooms, the hotel doesn’t charge rent for the ballrooms and other spaces.

Advantage to organizer is performers will book early. So minimum number of rooms quota is met. Then hotel opens the next tier room quota. When non-performers see the number of rooms already booked, they see it as a signal that a lot of people are interested. It creates a fly-wheel effect.

Assuming total 2000 attendees who are not performers, paying average $100 (a really low average figure) each, that is 2000x100=200,000. The main expense for organizers is insurance, travel fees, and accommodation for the top “artists” + the same for all the DJs. Most of the festival staff is volunteers with some paying partially for the festival pass depending on the number of hours volunteered. I am guessing minimum take is $250K. Assuming all the expenses cost $50K to $75K (generous assumption), you can see how profitable it is.
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I think it depends which hotel and organizer. At Bachaturo at the Sangate in summer I recall rooms going for half what they went for for El Sol at the same hotel. I assume the difference went to the organizers. In both cases the hotel was sold out. I doubt November is a bigger hotel month than August.
 
Al Israel said:
I think it depends which hotel and organizer. At Bachaturo at the Sangate in summer I recall rooms going for half what they went for for El Sol at the same hotel. I assume the difference went to the organizers. In both cases the hotel was sold out. I doubt November is a bigger hotel month than August.
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I was only talking about SF SBK economics.

El Sol and hotel-organizer terms in Poland or order places in Europe will be completely different than in the USA.

I think El Sol started out in late 2000s? When I went to my first El Sol in 2016 it was still very inexpensive though I booked everything at the last minute. One advantage El Sol had was a low cost location when starting out.

What was most impressive about El Sol was how the organizers grew it to such a big event in a place like Warsaw. Had I not been on Salsa Forums I would have never heard it it. Back then almost no one in local social knew about it (or of EU festival scene except for may be the old Paris congress). Within two years it all changed. Some people started traveling to EU festivals and El Sol.
 
MamboJazz said:
You said you arrived at that festival, grabbed Gatica for a few dances and left again? That's the snobbiest thing I ever heard.:rofl:
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I was salsa a snob 10 years ago;
S

Post in thread 'Amsterdam Congress 2015'

MrNiceGuy said:
Ever seen Gatica and Keskya?
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I danced with Gatica couple of weeks ago and she was most awesome. Most recommend. Later found out she's a teacher too.

we even had a dedicated thread

S

Post in thread 'Have you met... the 'Salsa Snob'?!'

Last night I got feedback from non-salsa dancer, that I'm a salsa snob. Or so they say. :)


But back then I danced salsa with almost everyone. Now I'm a sabor snob, maybe I have to go to the sabor thread and apologize. Unclear which one though and should David make server backups before that.
 
What is the lamest excuse you have ever heard a Salsa artist give for not attending an event, that they were supposed to be at?

Johnny Vazquez was supposed to be the Dance Congress Hamburg this weekend, but didn't go. I was not at the event, but I saw video he posted explaining why. Apparently, his bag was stolen a week ago, and he lost all his documents. So he filmed himself from an empty airport with his partner, explaining how he tried to get on a flight with his pink residence card, but they wouldn't let him. Although this sounded more like, he made this story up to pretend like he had tried to made some kind of effort

Worst still in his video, he got the name of the event wrong (calling it the Hamburg congress - ok really minor point), and it sounded like he had not even spoken to the organizers.

He is 45 years old, and has travelled all over the world, and this how he acts.

The guy dances like a clown, because as it turns out, he is a clown in real life.
 
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Al Israel said:
I think it depends which hotel and organizer. At Bachaturo at the Sangate in summer I recall rooms going for half what they went for for El Sol at the same hotel. I assume the difference went to the organizers. In both cases the hotel was sold out. I doubt November is a bigger hotel month than August.
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The ElSol organizer is definitely taking a cut from the hotels. The exact same room I paid 340 euro for is available at a random weekend for 232 euro from the hotel website. (Obviously, for the festival weekend it was not possible to book through it).
logic said:
He is 45 years old, and has travelled all over the world, and this how he acts.

The guy dances like a clown, because as it turns out, he is a clown in real life.
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Johnny Vazquez is not well healthwise physically. I last saw him at a festival in 2018 before this ElSol, the physical decline - besides aging - is obvious (he even directly said so himself after his show on Saturday ElSol when given the mic), I think that has mental implications for him as well. I would not be too harsh on him.
 
dermont said:
Johnny Vazquez is not well healthwise physically. I last saw him at a festival in 2018 before this ElSol, the physical decline - besides aging - is obvious (he even directly said so himself after his show on Saturday ElSol when given the mic), I think that has mental implications for him as well. I would not be too harsh on him.
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Ok point taken, thanks for the context. This was not obvious to me from watching the video.
 
logic said:
So he filmed himself from an empty airport with his partner, explaining how he tried to get on a flight with his pink residence card, but they wouldn't let him. Although this sounded more like, he made this story up to pretend like he had tried to made some kind of effort

Worst still in his video, he got the name of the event wrong (calling it the Hamburg congress - ok really minor point), and it sounded like he had not even spoken to the organizers.

He is 45 years old, and has travelled all over the world, and this how he acts.

The guy dances like a clown, because as it turns out, he is a clown in real life.
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Did you get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning and hit your head repeatedly against a wall?

It can take up to 2 weeks or more at busy times like Christmas to get a replacement passport in Italy. Perhaps he didn't have the time to do it with his teaching commitments & thought his ID would be sufficient for an intra EU flight.

Calling a congress happening in Hamburg the Hamburg Congress in a last minute video directed at people going to the Dance Congress Hamburg in a non native language is hardly an issue. Do you speak any other languages so perfectly that you never make a mistake in them?

Artists get words wrong all the time, even forgetting words they use all the time like arm, elbow, bicep, hip while they're on stage teaching in English when it's not their first language.
 
dermont said:
The ElSol organizer is definitely taking a cut from the hotels. The exact same room I paid 340 euro for is available at a random weekend for 232 euro from the hotel website. (Obviously, for the festival weekend it was not possible to book through it).
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I don't think you can say that conclusively. It's just supply and demand pricing from the hotel. They know they have a captive audience and can price at what they like and they'll sell out. They also need extra staff for a fully booked out hotel than when half full the following weekend.

Look at any music concert happening in a city and watch the room prices go crazy once the tour dates are announced.

Back in 2017 or 18 I remember Ana saying one of the hotels next to the Sangate was pressuring her to confirm the dates for the the following year before the Sunday night when next year's dates & tickets were announced. They promptly jacked up the price for that weekend for all their rooms knowing full well with 5000 people arriving they'd sell out.
 
logic said:
Johnny Vazquez was supposed to be the Dance Congress Hamburg this weekend, but didn't go. I was not at the event, but I saw video he posted explaining why. Apparently, his bag was stolen a week ago, and he lost all his documents. So he filmed himself from an empty airport with his partner, explaining how he tried to get on a flight with his pink residence card, but they wouldn't let him. Although this sounded more like, he made this story up to pretend like he had tried to made some kind of effort
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This just popped up in my feed.
www.facebook.com

3.3K views · 59 reactions | @johnnyvazquez_official delivering pure power and energy at @benidormbeachfestival ☀️✨ | Social Dance TV

@johnnyvazquez_official delivering pure power and energy at @benidormbeachfestival ☀️✨
www.facebook.com www.facebook.com
 
RandomBeat said:
Did you get out of the wrong side of the bed this morning and hit your head repeatedly against a wall?
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Nope. Is that what your morning was like?

RandomBeat said:
It can take up to 2 weeks or more at busy times like Christmas to get a replacement passport in Italy. Perhaps he didn't have the time to do it with his teaching commitments & thought his ID would be sufficient for an intra EU flight.
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You are just inventing excuses. I am commentating directly about his video.

RandomBeat said:
Calling a congress happening in Hamburg the Hamburg Congress in a last minute video directed at people going to the Dance Congress Hamburg in a non native language is hardly an issue. Do you speak any other languages so perfectly that you never make a mistake in them?

Artists get words wrong all the time, even forgetting words they use all the time like arm, elbow, bicep, hip while they're on stage teaching in English when it's not their first language.
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He speaks good enough English, and as a professional making an apology video to the people who paid to go to the event, and to the Organizer, you would expect him to get the details right.
 
logic said:
What is the lamest excuse you have ever heard a Salsa artist give for not attending an event, that they were supposed to be at?

Johnny Vazquez was supposed to be the Dance Congress Hamburg this weekend, but didn't go. I was not at the event, but I saw video he posted explaining why. Apparently, his bag was stolen a week ago, and he lost all his documents. So he filmed himself from an empty airport with his partner, explaining how he tried to get on a flight with his pink residence card, but they wouldn't let him. Although this sounded more like, he made this story up to pretend like he had tried to made some kind of effort

Worst still in his video, he got the name of the event wrong (calling it the Hamburg congress - ok really minor point), and it sounded like he had not even spoken to the organizers.

He is 45 years old, and has travelled all over the world, and this how he acts.

The guy dances like a clown, because as it turns out, he is a clown in real life.
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I thought he was 50+. I appreciate his dancing, most other dancers are carbon copies of each other.
 
logic said:
What is the lamest excuse you have ever heard a Salsa artist give for not attending an event, that they were supposed to be at?

Johnny Vazquez was supposed to be the Dance Congress Hamburg this weekend, but didn't go. I was not at the event, but I saw video he posted explaining why. Apparently, his bag was stolen a week ago, and he lost all his documents. So he filmed himself from an empty airport with his partner, explaining how he tried to get on a flight with his pink residence card, but they wouldn't let him. Although this sounded more like, he made this story up to pretend like he had tried to made some kind of effort

Worst still in his video, he got the name of the event wrong (calling it the Hamburg congress - ok really minor point), and it sounded like he had not even spoken to the organizers.

He is 45 years old, and has travelled all over the world, and this how he acts.

The guy dances like a clown, because as it turns out, he is a clown in real life.
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I don’t find that lame. Unless you are really sure he is lying about losing papers, you are casting aspersions. I known several friends who only realised they left passport at home after they reached airport counter for check-in.

He may dance like a clown but he is very popular and very entertaining. He is an entertainer first. Probably one of the best in the business. He does clown around in real when you see him on the dance floor. What he performs takes a lots of skills. Not everyone can do what he has been doing. On the dance floor he tries to get everyone involved. Unlike a lot of celebrities, he is out there trying to interact with everyone.

His way of dancing is not my cup of tea. But there is no reason to slander him.
 
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Offbeat said:
I don’t find that lame. Unless you are really sure he is lying about losing papers, you are casting aspersions. I known several friends who only realised they left passport at home after they reached airport counter for check-in.

He may dance like a clown but he is very popular and very entertaining. He is an entertainer first. Probably one of the best in the business. He does clown around in real when you see him on the dance floor. What he performs takes a lots of skills. Not everyone can do what he has been doing. On the dance floor he tries to get everyone involved. Unlike a lot of celebrities, he is out there trying to interact with everyone.

His way of dancing is not my cup of tea. But there is no reason to slander him.
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I am not in a position to say whether he is lying or not, and that really is not my point.

My point is, is how much effort he really put into resolving the situation he described based on what he posted.

I watched the video, and found it to be lame. I think a professional, and a seasoned traveller, who makes commitments, would have acted differently. Trying to get on a flight with a "residence card" !?? .

The fact the organizer responded with a blunt "we will handle it internally" message, didn't give me the impression they were impressed.

If there is an issue with his mental/physical health, that is understood by the wider salsa community and his fans, which explains his behaviour, then fair enough.

But I do not see why even popular salsa artists can't be challenged about their behaviour, and things they post.
 
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Offbeat said:
He is an entertainer first. Probably one of the best in the business. He does clown around in real when you see him on the dance floor. What he performs takes a lots of skills. Not everyone can do what he has been doing. On the dance floor he tries to get everyone involved. Unlike a lot of celebrities, he is out there trying to interact with everyone.
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JV is an interesting personality. He is often at Hungarian dance festivals, which are very low level and very mixed. He is a kind of party instigator. Riling people up by dancing and singing. I will never see him at a pure mambo dance event, which is fine by me, but I guess he serves a different purpose. He is invited by organizers who want his vibe. He would probably do well in my town because he could make fun from nothing and the locals would eat him up.

I still remember my one and only encounter with him at Bachaturo 2013. He has always had the same energy and vibe. I have no idea whether his real life personality mirrors his dancing persona but I definitely don't want to find out.

I am not surprised that he is not well physically. He is on the older side in the Salsa world so he probably should think about taking care of his health more actively.
 
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Chris_Yannick said:
I was always curious how someone can learn both WCS movement with Salsa movement without mixing the two together. It seems impossible that they would not influence the other (moreso WCS movement influencing Salsa than the other way around)

Salsa has a natural swing/bounce while WCS seems very levelled on the z-axis (no up and down movement)
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Yup, you will mix the two. I remember getting teased a lot in the beginning for dancing WCS like a Salsero ;) . In general, Salsa technique feels "sexy/hot" while WCS feels "nerdy-cool.
 
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