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 A few of the Salsa-Central team attended the Great British Salsa Experience in Manchester, a Salsa Congress hosted by Emma and Kate Moore of Salsology and The Brit Salsafest.
We had some involvement with the event, in that we did some promotion, Mel taught, I filmed, and Mel co-ordinated the spinning record attempt. As always, I will make the review completely impartial;
The Great British Salsa Experience - 21st to 23rd November, 2008
The Venue
The setting for the Great British Salsa Experience was Manchesters Town Hall, a fantastic Gothic setting right in the heart of Manchester. The whole event was held under one roof,  which was needed at this time of year due to the cold weather, and quite a large Christmas market was immediately outside the main door - perfect for the refills of mulled wine. This, plus the architecture of the venue gave a nice Christmasy feel to the whole event.
The majority of the event was held on the first floor, with the helpdesk and Oobashoo stand on the ground floor. The main thoroughfare hosted the vendor tables, of which there were quite a few, with the various workshop and other rooms immediately accessed from here. Vendors included Dean Maynard Clothing, Bespoke Shoes, Mambocity, Suzi Q, Jinga, Dancetees, and quite a few more including Salsa-Central.
The central area was available for daytime social dancing, with the doors to the Great Hall facing on to it. Music for this area came courtesy of the Mr Bongo stall which faced onto it.
The building itself was stunning inside and really gave the whole event a rather special feel to it.
The Workshops
Workshops were pre-booked to avoid over-crowding, and the majority were near capacity due to a last-minute surge in ticket sales. The pre-booking system itself worked in the majority of cases, with the odd issue mainly due to the inflexibility of the system. The general content of the workshops seemed to be pitched at the right level, with a good variety of styles and levels on offer.
The Shows
Shows started pretty much bang on time every night, with a full hall each time. There was just the right amount of shows to keep everyone interested with very few fillers, and the whole sequence flowed very well with Rohan Brown doing an excellent job as compere. Baila Society opened proceedings on the Friday night, closing things on the Sunday, and we were treated to a surprise addition to the line-up on Sunday from Hacha y Machete with their new show.
In addition to the shows, on the Sunday night, there were various thanks and presentations, including an announcement that anyone with a ticket under their seat or who were stood on a red cross had won free tickets to one of the events mentioned - a nice surprise for those lucky enough! Sunday also saw Mel C on stage to present the winners of the Guinness world record attempt at spinning, which was won my Giles and Lisa, of OnSalsa and Con Tambor respectively. They did break the record, but this will of course need the official verification.
The Parties
There were two party rooms throughout the weekend, with the Great Hall hosting your typical congress fare of Mambo, hard salsa-dura, and Cha-Cha. The second party room was the combination of two workshop rooms, and played more mainstream salsa with a good helping of Cuban salsa and Bachata. Overall, a good mix of music was on offer.
 The friday and saturday parties finished at 4am, followed each night by an after-party for an hour or so. The Sunday night closed at 3am (ish) and was very busy right until the end - a sure-fire sign of a good event.
A bar was available between the two party rooms, serving a range of draught and bottled beers, plus spirits, with water and soft drink stations situated just outside this area. The only negative here was the queue for the bar on the Saturday night, but this was very quickly resolved.
In addition to all this was the 'Gourmet Chippie', a food area at the one end of the venue which served some good food from 1am each night and proved quite popular.
The Accomodation
There were a number of hotels within 5 to 10 minutes walking distance of the venue, at various price ranges. We opted to stay in the Premier Inn GMEX, 2-3 minutes walk away, which is where a number of the artists had been booked into. Also near by was another Premier Inn, an Ibis, various budget hotels, plus the Radisson and Midland for those with a slightly larger budget.
Summary
This was an extremely well-produced congress, and overall feedback has been very positive. It was obvious that a lot of thought and preparation had gone into the planning, with the dancer put first in every case, and even the smallest of details seem to have been covered. As with every event, there were negatives, but these were very minimal and overall this was a great event which I suspect may sell out in advance next year!!
An additonal review of the event can be found on Salsaforums - CLICK HERE
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