Back from Istanbul (Istanbul World Dance Congress).
List of pros and cons, not in order, not necessarily related to the congress itself:
Pros:
-the venue is good, good AC everywhere except in the main bachata room (but even there it was bearable)
-high attendance though the count they announced (5000+ dancers) is inflated - felt more like couple thousand less in total. Peak bachata floor was maybe ~1000+, peak salsa floor seemed like 400-500.
-high dance level both in salsa and bachata. I had the best salsa dance I ever had in all my years of dancing on Sunday, shortly before I had to leave for my flight. I had a bunch of other great dances as well. I don't think I had a bad dance, but there were mediocre ones of course.
-ratio was in my favor (overall seemed like 4:3 followers to leaders, so on the verge of heavily skewed)
-had a great salsa workshop by Karen and Ricardo and a great bachata urban workshop by a Greek couple
Cons:
-some DJs (yes, I mean the local ones) were godawful. Horrible bachata remixes, including of turkish pop songs.
-on Friday, between 0 and 2:30 one of the floors was "closed" because of the soundcheck+ havana d'primera concert (30 euro paid separately, did not attend). The other main floor was mixed salsa+bachata at that time and, because there were not that many people attending the concert, was overcrowded to the point of making it exceptionally hard to find space for dancing. That's why the Friday party for me was the worst of the 4 nights I stayed.
-the workshops in the main bachata room had the most awful, stuck-up followers I have ever encountered at a congress.
-the overall cost of the congress is relatively high (they specifically have branded it "the luxury dance experience). I did not stay at the main venue but in a hotel at 20 minutes walking distance (saved 200+ euro). It drizzled the whole time but luckily no heavy rain so a hoodie+umbrella were enough to move around comfortably.
-a lot of stuff was closed Friday-Sunday because of the religious holiday so I had to eat at way too expensive restaurants and mostly buy bottled water at the venue (1 euro for 0.5 liter bottle)
Overall, despite maybe not being clear from the list above, I mostly had a great time and plan to attend the next year if life and events in the region allow it.
I have to say, I found it really funny that Istanbul was the first time I've encountered Bachata now having the equivalent to follows asking if you can dance on2 before agreeing to dance with you, which is them asking if you can dance BachaZouk.
Overall though I agree, level was really nice. It was particularly pleasant as someone who dances both to be able to switch between the two, especially when the high was fading off on one. Had amazing dances in both floors and probably the best bachata dance of my life at the festival; I think the follow was top 5 in the pro JnJ. She was so, so fun to dance with.
I also really enjoyed the workshops. Was a bit unfortunate Terry/Cecile and Dimitris/Yolena were so early on Sunday, because no way was I going to wake up for that, but Panagiotis/Myrto classes are always a good time, and I enjoyed Fadi Fusion and Mezcla Latina a lot. Bachata workshops were a bit worse because they were considerably larger, thus the distribution of levels was large, and the teachers had to accommodate accordingly, but I still got some cool moves/techniques out of it. It was also just nice to see the different styles of all the pros, as my scene has homogenised a bit around hardcore sensual/zouk.
I personally found Thursday night the worst, outside of the last hour and a half, it felt the dance floor was flooded with dancers who weren't very trained in the salsa room. The bachata room was still good, but I wasn't feeling it that night. I really enjoyed the other nights, including Friday, but I came later so missed all the stuff with the shows. I heard DJ York kept singing after every show and would ask the crowd if he could sing again, and they would respond by chanting no and he would keep doing it. I could see why that would piss people off, but I personally find that stuff so hilarious.
Music wise, agreed. When they started playing all the garbage remix, I just left to the salsa room. The worst offender was a Spanish bachata remix of "Die with a smile". At that point I definitely wanted to do one of those words. There were some good DJs though, and DJ York was really good. Salsa music was very good, though I swear I heard pasaporte 3x in one night. Maybe it's the havana d'primera concert influence (I also did not attend).
I didn't find the price super egregious. I think my flights were very cheap, and I stayed at a hotel nearby that was cheap. The ticket was slightly pricey, but I think overall it was cheaper than average.
And yeah the organisers lied their asses off about numbers lmao. One of the artists told me on Thursday night that they sold 7000 tickets and were expecting to sell a thousand more, but I agree with your estimate. I would have liked it to have been just a bit more busy, and for the salsa ppl to stop bumming each other at the dj booth at the front and actually spread out more when dancing, especially as, for me, it slightly compromised the vibe when half the dance hall is relatively empty (though there were a lot of people in the front half). Bachata people also did this, but not to the same extent, and had the benefit of the way the room was laid out making it not feel notable (bachata room spread horizontally, whilst the salsa room was one long hall). But overall, I did find the attendance quite nice.
Though, to be fair, it's possible that they did sell a lot of tickets and some people couldn't make it. I had a friend who's in Asia who said she couldn't make it because of difficulties with her connecting flight due to what's ongoing.
A high level mixed festival? Sounds like a unicorn.
I think it's because it's one of the accessible festivals for Russians, so especially in bachata, they flock to it. And there was a lot of them and they were very good. The salsa did feel like a normal distribution across countries.
I would definitely recommend it though, especially as a mixed festival. I personally had a great time, and will look to do it again next year if I'm available.
Many salsa music dislikers would agree with you.
