Tango doesn’t like to be defined. Pick any topic you like, ask ten different dancers about it, and you’ll likely end up with eleven different views. Twelve if they are teachers.

This apparently includes naming conventions for tango festivals, making it hard for potential participants to know what they may be getting. But there’s one term that seems to be gaining favour that I think helps …

As one of the ten different dancers you might ask, here are my understandings of the various terms:

• Festival: A catch-all term for any set of milongas over a weekend or more
• Marathon: A festival with no workshops or performances, only milongas
• Encuentro: A marathon limited to close-embrace dancers with good floorcraft skills

With a fourth one seemingly taking off:

• Festathon: A festival with workshops and performances but uninterrupted dancing on the main floor

Of course, organisers still choose their own labels according to their own understandings, and there are still plenty of variations within these themes. Some events are role-balanced, others not. Some offer tickets for individual milongas while others are limited to event passes. Some encuentros are invitation-only, while others allow anyone to apply but are still selective in the registrations they accept.

But I think festathon has the potential to be an honourable exception because any organiser opting for this has not just picked one of the more usual labels at random. I’m hoping that means it will be used very deliberately, and will therefore deliver what it says on the tin.

It’s certainly the case with the Cheltenham Festathon (even if there has been a gap in the dancing for many of us during a session with a rather unusual one-person orchestra best described as Marmite …).