This was the first time that David Hynes of NuSalsa had arranged a full weekender, and the event took place in the Park Avenue hotel, located about 10 minutes from Belfast City Airport. It's the perfect venue for this type of event, with everything being self contained.
The hotel itself is billed as three star, which is fair, and is well decorated and clean throughout, and all the usual facilities are available.
There is a restaurant in the hotel, which serves a good variety of food, as well as a bistro bar, which provides the usual bar snacks and main meals. For those that didn't want to eat on site, there are a couple of nice bars and a Tesco Express within easy walking distance.
For the event itself, 3 conference-type rooms had been allocated for classes, and fitted with temporary dance-floors. There was also an external room (The Cambridge Room), still on-site and only 20 seconds walk from the Reception main door. This room was a lot larger than the others and could comfortably hold a few hundred. This was where the busiest classes and the parties were to be held, and had a fantastic dancefloor.
Friday The weekender kicked off properly at 8pm on the Friday night, with classes for the first hour. Once the classes were over, DJ Melody (aka Mel C) started the Dj'ing and played a good selection of tunes familiar to the crowd to ease them in and encourage everyone onto the dancefloor, before progressing into a slightly harder selection while keeping the dancefloor full. After that, it was time for yours truly (DJ Torqueo) to make his DJ debut, and hopefully I didn't disappoint ;-)
During my set, David had arranged with the teachers for them to do a brief demo to introduce themselves to the crowd. This involved 1 minute each of Cha Cha, Cuban Salsa, then Salsa while they danced freestyle with each other. This was a great way of allowing everyone to see the teachers in action and introducing the beginners in attendance to some of the different styles of dance. Once I'd finished my set, Joe Davids took control of the decks for the remainder of the night and kept the dancefloor busy.
The Friday night had an early finish (1am), but an after-party had been arranged in the residents bar. Joe started things off, playing a good mix of Salsa, before Sagi and his laptop took over and got the party rocking with his funk selection. Not sure exactly when it finished as I didn't make it to the end!!
Saturday
This was the first day of workshops, which were well attended throughout, and I spent most of the day in the Cambridge room as a result of us having a CD stall there, so watched workshops from Joe Davids, then Lee and Shelley, who's warm-up to the Spiderman theme was a particular highlight for me (Where do they get their energy from)!!
It was then time for lunch, and the hotel staff had opened the bar to serve tea, coffee, sandwiches and muffins, for those that didn't want to venture away from the venue. I put some of my tunes on during lunch to allow people to get a bit of practice in.
Next up, was another class from Joe Davids (Shines Theory), then Mel C (Int Partnerwork), before the venue had to be cleared out in preparation for the main party night!
We arrived at the party for about 10pm, so missed the classes and only caught the end of Gary's set, who was followed by Sagi, then Joe Davids, all of whom kept the party well and truly in full swing.
There were three shows scheduled for the night, and it had been decided to do one at a time, split throughout the night. First up was Franklyn and Brigitte, who performed their 'Angelina' routine, then about half an hour later was Alpha T. After the shows, Mauricio Reyes began his first set, accompanied by his selection of instruments!!
I had the opportunity to DJ again, so took over from Mauricio for a while. During my set, Lee and Shelley performed, then I was back on. Mel C took over from me, then Mauricio was back on for the rest of the night, which ran a bit later this time. Shortly before the end, Mauricio dropped a few Reggaeton tracks, which resulted in a line-up from Helen and really topped the party off nicely!! Things eventually wrapped up in the main room at 2-15am (ish), then off to the residents bar for the after-party.
I started the music off here, continuing with Salsa for a bit, before moving into a bit of funk and boogaloo, then Sagi was on to raise the funk levels up a bit, and things were finished off by Mauricio. The party eventually stopped at 6am, but only because the hotel staff had to set up for breakfast!
Sunday
Classes kicked off at 11am on Sunday, although I have to admit that I wasn't up at this time so set the stall up slightly late! The workshops were again very well attended throughout, before the final party for the Sunday evening, then it was time for us to fly home..
It was a big event for me to make my DJ debut at, but it was made easy with such a great crowd in attendance!!
Overall, this was one of the most fun and enjoyable weekenders I've attended, and David went out of his way to make sure everyone (not just teachers and guests) had a great time!!
Here's hoping it's an annual occurance!!
Did you go? If so, let everyone know what you thought of the event, what your highlights were, and what you'd like to see next time, using the comments function below.
