Festival and Travel Planner 2026
- Thread starter azana
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bailar y tocar
Son Montuno
No comments yet? Ok. I will go first.
I will be at the Chicago Intl Salsa Congress 2026 edition Feb 12-15. It is the 25th Anniversary. The longest continuously running salsa congress in the Americas. The second longest on the planet after Five Star Mambo City. The organizers of Five Star Mambo City Bobby and Jean will be at CISC. They come every year.
Fwiw, I have been to every one of the 25 congresses. For the first two I was a co-producer but managed to escape that responsibility when I moved from the Chicago metro to the Minneapolis metro in late 2003.
I will be at the Chicago Intl Salsa Congress 2026 edition Feb 12-15. It is the 25th Anniversary. The longest continuously running salsa congress in the Americas. The second longest on the planet after Five Star Mambo City. The organizers of Five Star Mambo City Bobby and Jean will be at CISC. They come every year.
Fwiw, I have been to every one of the 25 congresses. For the first two I was a co-producer but managed to escape that responsibility when I moved from the Chicago metro to the Minneapolis metro in late 2003.
The congress, is 2 months out, and no artists, or DJ's are listed on their website. Is this normal for this event? How is it possible for anyone to plan to attend something like this, if they are not local?
It has been a long running congee and had earned reputation. So people know about it. Are you new?
No information by this time is strange.
bailar y tocar
Son Montuno
The background is that the congress is attended by more or less the same people every year. Attendees, most instructors and even most performers are almost always the same people. One could call it a "family gathering" and one would not be wrong. There are def. a lot of performers attending and that is usually the source of newcomers*.
I happen to know who the bands are going to be because the event I am involved with, the Rueda Summit at CISC, is on Thursdays and the timba band is playing on Sundays so I suggested that at the summit we focus on practicing with hand signals so we can do rueda on Sunday when the band is playing.
That said, the band announcement usually happens in early December and it has not happened yet. Fwiw, the discounted hotel room block has already sold out, it always sells out the day it launches. At times the hotel has added another block later on if they don't have any other conferences in the hotel at the time.
Also... there is an interesting timing dynamic at the congress. The shows typically end on time at around 10-10:30pm. They change the ballroom and place the musical instruments, then the ballroom opens up again around 11pm. Some people dance outside on the carpet and in the lobby while waiting.
Band usually starts around 12am and plays till 1:30am or so. From 1:30am to about 2:30-ish it's still a mixed crowd. By about 2:30-end it is pretty much strictly on2 dancers.
P.S. * many of the performance groups are from Chicago and from Milwaukee. Some of the dance studios have performance classes. Example: Latin Rhythms is one of the larger schools in Chicago. They usually have a dozen or so performance teams and affiliated performance teams - meaning people who train elsewhere but perform one of the shows with LR. For the schools, the congress is very important to recruit people for performance classes. If there was no stage, the schools would not be sustainable.
P.S. 2 the other source of new performers are the "kids" groups. Several regular academic schools in the city and region have several salsa performance teams. Some of them even treat the congress performance as a kind of competition as the best of show at the matinee is selected to perform on the night stage.
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bailar y tocar
Son Montuno
I would agree to a point. The pros and very advanced on2 dancers come out at around 1:30 or 2am and then continue at the afterparty after the ballroom closes.
For people who would prefer the marathon format, this is not that type of event.
The benefit I have had over the years is that as my dancing has evolved from mostly casino to a mix of casino, cali-style and a wee bit of linear on1, there are plenty of dancers who are more flexible at this event. When I have been to events that cater to one specific type of salsa dancing, the dance partners available are of a narrower spectrum. Mixing in other things than the dominant style causes a bit of confusion and the dance is less fluid. That said, I do have to observe any follows who dance on2 to see if they can and will dance on1 with others before asking. There def. are quite a few strictly on2 dancers at CISC.
Both weekends at Live2Mambo? Savage.
Is this any good?
Oh that's more credit than deserved
First time to any of them so no idea. But love the band and wanna support live music. Nothing beats dancing to live!
I was at Brasov around six years ago and the Salsa Music was the worst I've heard my entire life. So much elevator music. I literally fell asleep waiting for good songs. Hopefully it has improved.
Thanks for info. Debated Brasov or Sarajevo, same weekend. But hey, if they can pull in LA Maxima79, should be a safer bet right? And if a decent follower for a live La Gripe, then icing on the
Sarajevo parties are only till 3 and not sure about day socials but the djs are probably better. Good luck.
So in 2026 the festivals of Legends Old School near Madrid and SalsaRave near Barcelona will be at different weekends (both in september). It was a controverse in 2025 why they were at the same weekend. They may target not an identical crowd, but some people will like to go to both festivals.
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TokyoDancerDoll
Changui
Wish I had some travel plans, but so far nothing 
If anyone's passing through Tokyo though, hit me up, I'm always dancing here!
If anyone's passing through Tokyo though, hit me up, I'm always dancing here!
Ready to roll!
But as they say, all plans out the window once reality sets in. My earlier debate of Brasov or Sarajevo turned out pointless. For Brasov, I'm amazed the venue is 5km from town center with few hotels and Airbnbs. Even their listed Hotel Ambient is at near center. So the thought of end of party crowd scrambling for rides in early morning cold is not appealing. As for Sarajevo, I'm stunned by the terrible travel options, as full day endeavor is what you have to contend with. Budapest Live2Mambo is also out. Program lists night parties starting 1am, after a 2-hour show block! May be okay as start of a trip but definitely not the end.
But I manage to score the best airport layover ever!
Sat the10th, get in Heathrow 8pm, hop over to Heathrow Radisson for MamboConSon till 4am, then back to terminal for 7am fly-out. Best night for no travel and no hotel
Sun the 11th, Zagreb for 4 nights, local scene?
Thu the 15th, Ljubljana for Magic
Thu the 22th, Budapest for 5 nights, local scene?
Tips on local scenes most appreciated! Anyone nearby around these times and can meet up? Drop me a note...
I go there only to the afternoon parties which are 5 hours each day and assemble the greatest dancers. 15 hours in 3 days are enough reason for me to go. Also you misread the program a bit: shows are only 1 hour and only on saturday, and night party starts at 23 h / midnight (although admitted good dancers start showing up later as always).