Houston Salsa Congress Cancelled/Postponed Because ...

I imagine quite a few of salsa artists, teachers, etc. work in US with wrong visa, right? And with all recent hostility, if much of your event is based on that, then it's quite risky.

But with regard to attendees, were there really that big foreign presence in Houston? Mexicans? Where did people come from?
 
Smejmoon said:
I imagine quite a few of salsa artists, teachers, etc. work in US with wrong visa, right? And with all recent hostility, if much of your event is based on that, then it's quite risky.

But with regard to attendees, were there really that big foreign presence in Houston? Mexicans? Where did people come from?
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I heard that Super Mario had problems many years ago because he was working in the USA without the proper paperwork.

My experience has been that Mexicans attend the event, but I'm not sure if that is a problem, if it's just a weekend visit.

I haven't been to this event since before C19. My feeling is that the event has lost some of its appeal, unrelated to the issues mentioned by the organizers. The reason being that there are competing events in Houston and other parts of Texas and in other parts of the USA and around the world. Also, outside of the dancing, there isn't much more to Houston on a weekend visit.
 
Any foreign instructors who were issued warning previously for working on visitor’s visa will or should think twice. Most instructors come on visitor’s visa (B1/B2 for business/tourist) or from visa exempt country. Working for remuneration or not is barred. Taking remuration to teach privates or a class is considered working. It is the same. Almost all countries have the similar rules with visitor’s visa. Schengen visitor’s visa (or visa exempt travel) also has condition of not allowed to work in the EU.

Mario was banned from entering for 5 years because someone snitched that he was working on when traveling as a visitor. UK and most OECD plus few other countries are allowed to visit USA without visa (now called ESTA).

I don’t think in current environment any salsa stars or instructor should risk attending anything in the USA. Your social media can be checked at the airport.

As far as Houston or any congress in the USA, only a small number are visiting from outside the USA. If we exclude those traveling from abroad to perform, less than 5% may be from outside. Of them half would be from Canada or Mexico.


Houston congress may had foreign stars refusing to attend. Other festivals would also face that, if that is what of happening. But there of enough star power in the USA to headline any event. You only need two or three stars to headline big congress and one for a smaller festival. They may have also seen a dip in regular attendees. But the foreign attendees causing a dip of more than few percent is highly unlikely. Reasons must be competition causing not enough revenue collected before the congress. Due to lack of interest.
 
Offbeat said:
As far as Houston or any congress in the USA, only a small number are visiting from outside the USA. If we exclude those traveling from abroad to perform, less than 5% may be from outside. Of them half would be from Canada or Mexico.


Houston congress may had foreign stars refusing to attend. Other festivals would also face that, if that is what of happening. But there of enough star power in the USA to headline any event. You only need two or three stars to headline big congress and one for a smaller festival. They may have also seen a dip in regular attendees. But the foreign attendees causing a dip of more than few percent is highly unlikely. Reasons must be competition causing not enough revenue collected before the congress. Due to lack of interest.
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True, a lot of people don't travel internationally for salsa from the USA, but more and more are doing it these days.

Also, as I mentioned, Houston has competition from other congresses like BIG in Houston and San Antonio as well as congresses in other states. I don't think Houston ever really got their numbers back after C19, but I could be wrong.

As far as headliners from the USA, you are right about that as an option, but people get tired of the same ole after awhile. They see people like Fadi in all the videos on Youtube and want to learn from people like that or people with a different flavor or just someone different period.
 
The real reason is likely to be low ticket sales and doing their event outside the least competitive MLK weekend. The situation in the US will not change until the Midterms flip the House back to blue.
 
I am not sure if the reasons given are truly the reason for the postponement. Big congresses have large upfront expenses. If the early ticket sales are not happening, there is a lot of risk to move forward.

As to artists getting "paid" even though they are on a B1/B2 visa... there are lots of workarounds for that.
Typically, the workaround is that the organizer covers "travel and miscellaneous expenses" which an artist can accept legally.
I have no idea which artists were booked for Houston and if any of them had to travel on a visa.

The other factor to consider would be ICE raids at the event. Texas state govt is strongly supportive of such actions, so there is a risk to attendees who have document issues. There is also the negative publicity such an action would generate which would damage the congress a lot more than anything else.
 
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