|
The 1st Scottish Salsa Congress, 16th to 19th January, 2009
The Venue
 The entire Congress was held within the Best Western Edinburgh Capital hotel, a 3 star hotel a short drive from Edinburgh Airport. The hotel itself was very smart, with the lobby used for Vendor stalls, leading to the main hotel bar area which hosted a daytime social area and the party room on the night. Down a short corridor from here was another bar area which led onto the main party room. The main room was partitioned into 3 for classes, with the bar just outside acting as another workshop area, with two more classes catered for by an upstairs conference room and a dance studio in the fitness centre below.
During the evening, the main room was opened out, and hosted 3 dancefloors of adequate size, the only complaint being the quality of the main floor - something that can be easily rectified for next year.
All in all, this is a great venue for the congress, easily accomodating in excess of 500 attendees, while remaining intimate enough to make the event feel special.
Food was available from the bar area, with a supermarket about 10 minutes walk away and a selection of takeaways and restaurants only 5 minutes drive. The hotel were also happy for people to order in pizza/chinese etc, and provided numbers for these. The only negative here was the food availability during the day, with a small selection of relatively expensive sandwiches and wraps.
The Workshops
With the likes of Yamulee, Salsology, Moe Flex, etc in attendance, workshop quality was always going to be high, and the general feedback from the attendees was excellent. Scheduling and placement of the workshops was very good, and there were healthy numbers all round.
The Parties
 There was music played in the bar area from midday until 4am each day, with music in the main room from 10pm. Scotland has a large contingent of Cuban dancers, and the organisers recognised this by scheduling the Dj's to offer a real mix of styles. With such a split in tastes, there was always going to be some disappointment, but the general feedback from the parties was excellent. Both rooms were relatively busy until after 4am when the party switched fully to the bar area to wrap things up, usually with DJ Lubi, Moe Flex, and their Reggaeton party!!
The Shows
The performances took place at 11:30pm each evening on the main dancefloor, ably compered by Rohan Brown. We were subject to a slight delay before the shows on the Friday night as a result of a makeshift fashion show which went on a little too long and was a little out of place, but once that was out of the way, Co ventry's Encantada got things started, followed by TC Dance and Yamulee's new show. A total of 7 shows took place on the Saturday, and again featured Yamulee, as well as Salsology's new show. It was a well scheduled selection which went down well. I missed the Sunday night shows, so can't really comment on these.
Summary
This was one of the most fun weekend Salsa events i've been to and was like a non-stop, 72-hour party. Being the 1st event, there was always going to be a few niggles, but everyone was in the right spirit and i'll be back next year without a doubt!! (The 2nd Scottish Salsa Congress takes place on the weekend of Friday 15th to Monday 18th January 2010)
www.scottishsalsacongress.co.uk
Related Articles
 Friday Night Show - Encantada Dance Company - Watch
Friday Night Show - TC Dance - Watch
Saturday Night Show - Yamulee - Watch
Saturday Night Show - Osbanis & Aneta - Watch
|
