Category Archives: Festival

Festival, Following, Private lesson, Workshop

Finally achieving a long-held ambition to write a short blog post about the Feast!

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Given that the Feast is not only my favourite tango festival but also the most frequent, I’ve written the occasional blog post about it in the four years I’ve been coming. Each time, I think I can’t possibly have anything new to say, and every time I write several thousand words.

But this time I’ve finally achieved my long-held ambition to write a short post! Anyone feeling short-changed by this will find some video compensation at the end …

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Festival, Following, Group class, Private lesson

My tastiest ever Feast coming at just the right moment

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The Feast always feels like my tango home. It’s never been anything less than delicious, but this one was just … perfect.

Everyone in tango knows how fickle it can be. Sometimes the stars align and everything works wonderfully. Other times we can have a less happy experience for no obvious reason. This was one of those occasions when the tango gods were in the best and most generous of moods …

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Festival, Milonga

Septonathon, a truly wonderful almost-festival

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When I’m not able to make it to Buenos Aires, I nominally budget for six tango festivals a year. So far this year that has encompassed Sheffield, the summer Feast (in lieu of the spring one) and Cheltenham.

To come are the October and December Feasts, and since I’m not counting a random single night of a marathon, that left a gap I was able to fill with what I guess I’d have to call an almost-festival …

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Festival

A timely and joyful return to the Cheltenham International Tango Festival

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I’d first danced in Cheltenham in 2023, and immediately added it to my annual roster. Sadly I was out of action for the 2024 one, but signed up for this year the moment bookings went live.

Two days earlier, it had really looked like terrible timing. I’d had to say farewell to a much-loved furry friend of sixteen years (or 85 years, for her), and couldn’t imagine feeling like dancing a couple of days later. But that’s the thing about tango …

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Festival

The finest heat exhaustion on the market is to be found at the Summer Feast

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The weather gods usually deliver torrential rain and gale-force winds for my Feast visits, but since this one was in a ballroom noted for furnace-like temperatures, they of course opted instead for a heatwave.

To be fair to them, I don’t usually do the summer one, but having missed out on spring I was feeling in need of a fix …

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Festival, Following

A beautiful and miraculous Sheffield Tango Festival

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This was my third visit to the Sheffield Tango Festival, after first attending in 2023 and returning last year – and I’m already looking forward to the next.

This one was home to no fewer than six miracles – and that doesn’t even include me surviving the weekend on a diet mostly comprising tea and cake, with a splash or two of Malbec. On which topic, get yourself a cup or glass of one of the above before reading – this is a long one …

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Festival, Milonga

Tango so good it’s worth battling the xmas transport system

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Yeah, I know: Londoners complaining about transport is a bit rich. In truth, the fact that I was able to make these journeys at all is testament to how fortunate we are. But hey, it’s my blog, so you’ll have to humour me for a moment.

Sure, I have plenty of TICD within easy cycling distance, but my idea of tango means heading outside London, and my xmas plans in particular required heading west, young man …

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Festival

Another delicious Feast, tasting all the sweeter after my absence

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Arriving at the Feast always feels rather like coming home. It’s my favourite festival, and even for me it’s always filled with familiar faces.

But the experience of arriving here this time was especially wonderful. I couldn’t even count the number of welcoming embraces I got from people telling me how good it was to see me back after my enforced absence. I also had many partners assuring me as we walked onto the floor that we could stop if I needed to …

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Festival, Milonga

Romantica Milonguera at St James’s Church, Piccadilly

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Romantica Milonguera is my all-time favourite orchestra, and I’d twice been fortunate enough to be able to dance to them performing live – once in London, and again in Salon Canning.

You might have imagined I’d be first in line to buy a ticket when they made a rare visit to London for just one evening, but there was a catch …

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Festival, Progress update, Thoughts

Another (mostly) wonderful Sheffield Tango Festival, and feeling really at home in my own dance

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The fortnight leading up to the festival was among the most stressful and exhausting of my life. Short version: the place I thought was going to be my new home was withdrawn from the market on the day I made my formal offer for the pre-agreed amount; my plan B turned out to have hidden deal-breakers; and when I viewed my plan C, I discovered that the seller had decided to take the best offer by 5pm that day … and I got to view it at 4.43pm. And that’s skipping a whole lot of steps. What should have been a simple ‘Here’s my best and final offer, let me know’ deal on what became my preferred flat instead turned into some fast-and-furious negotiation, complete with an agent who went AWOL in the middle of it.

Suffice it to say that by the time the festival rolled around, if I hadn’t already been booked into it, I would happily have stayed home and spent the entire weekend sleeping. But I had a wonderful time last year, and suspected this would be the same. It was indeed, and turned out to be the perfect antidote …

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Festival, Following, Private lesson

I’d normally be in BsAs now, but The Feast is for sure the next best thing

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The past two years, I’ve spent the whole of March in BsAs, and this year my hope was to stay for April too. Sadly, having my flat on the market, with no idea when it might sell, made it impractical to be away for two months this spring. I’m hoping instead to be there for October and November.

But if I can’t be in BsAs, there’s no other place I’d rather be than The Feast …

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Festival, Milonga, Private lesson

Adopting an all-or-nothing approach – and having it all at The Feast

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Last time my Feastward journey was cancelled by Storm Ciarán; this time by Aslef! But at least the latter gave notice, allowing me to rebook my train journey for the Wednesday evening.

I’d actually only danced once since the last Feast, at Tango Secrets. That’s been partly a lack of time, and an aversion to heading out into freezing temperatures – but mostly it’s because I’ve reached an all-or-nothing mindset with tango …

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Festival, Milonga

Badly offending the tango gods! But their spirit of forgiveness was in full flow at The Feast

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I’m still not sure what I did to offend the tango gods, but it seems to have been something rather major. They laid on a fortnight-long perfect storm of events to spoil my tango fun – going so far as to throw in an actual storm.

Even The Feast wasn’t entirely immune this time …

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Festival, Thoughts

A 90% delicious Cheltenham International Tango Festival

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You know you’re having an odd tango weekend when 90% of the experience is like being in BsAs – and 10% of it is like being in London.

Perhaps we should get the London-like bit out of the way first: the post-10pm floorcraft in the evening milongas …

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Festival, Milonga, Private lesson

Feasting upon delicious tandas and school dinners in sunny Devon

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The Feast is always a delight, but I’d originally thought it might need to serve as something of an antidote to the previous weekend’s London Tango Marathon. Amazingly – and despite floorcraft crimes deserving of 20 years to life – I had an absolutely dream time there, so I had two magical weekends, rather than one.

The trip got off to an interesting start with the train. The journey had everything: drama, pathos, comedy …

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Festival, Progress update

Dancing milonga – a slow, upward spiral that has returned to playfulness

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Milonga tandas and I have had occasional short flings, but there’s never been much indication that we’re relationship material (not that I can claim any expertise on that topic!).

I actually began writing this as a section of the marathon, marathon post, but Scotty told me the WordPress engine cannae take it, so I had to split it off into its own post …

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Festival, Milonga

The London Tango Marathon: An event full of surprises!

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When I wrote that festivals are my future, I’d contrasted those with London tango; but this time I was combining the two. Make a cup of tea before reading: this is a long one.

To be honest, I had very low expectations. Not of this specific event, but of any London tango festival. As it turned out, only one of my expectations was met (you can guess which one, can’t you?) …

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Festival, Following, Milonga, Private lesson

My heart remains in BsAs, but the spirit of the city is alive in the UK

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I’ve been back in the UK for almost two months now, but the pull of BsAs hasn’t diminished in the slightest. While most of my body got on the plane to Heathrow, I seem to have forgotten to pack my heart. If only my bank account shared my sentiment, I’d get straight back on a plane again tomorrow.

Fortunately, there are places in the UK where the spirit of the city is alive, and I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy three of them since my return: the Argentine ambassador’s milonga, the Sheffield Tango Festival, and a return visit to Tango by the Sea …

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Festival, Following, Milonga

Many familiar faces and embraces at the delicious Sheffield Tango Festival

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The Sheffield Tango Festival was a first for me, but it certainly didn’t feel that way: there were a great many familiar faces and embraces from London, Cambridge, The Feast, Tango by the Sea, and – in at least one case – Buenos Aires.

Of course, the ‘familiar faces’ part is for varying values of same, and in some cases it was the embrace rather than the face I recognised …

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Festival, Thoughts

Feeling that festivals are my tango future

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I know, I’ve only been to four events across two festivals so far, so it may be rather early to draw any firm conclusions. But certainly my limited experience to date suggests that festivals (and BsAs, of course!) may be where I do most of my dancing in future.

If this does prove to be the case, it’ll be the next stage in a gradual process for me …

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Festival, Milonga, Progress update

Tango by the Sea: More festival heaven

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Filling the tango festival gap between the November and December Feasts was a new-to-me one: Tango by the Sea, in Felixstowe. I did have to take the ‘by the sea’ part on trust, as the furthest I got from the dance floor was a cafe about 200 feet away.

Actually, they refer to it as a house-party rather than a festival, as a way of emphasising the relaxed and fun atmosphere they want people to enjoy …

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Festival, Milonga

A long weekend of heaven, at The Feast

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Returning from The Feast feels a little like returning from BsAs – that I’ve been living in this incredible, magical bubble, and now I have to return to the everyday world. It’s almost jarring.

Last year, I described how it was a bit of a slow-burn as a first-timer. The vast majority of Feasters are regulars, so all know each other, and are keen to dance together again. But by my third visit, I was one of those regulars, and was receiving invitations from the first tanda …

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Festival, Milonga

If I go all the way to Devon, you can bet there’s a good reason for it!

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No offence to Devon; it’s a pretty part of the world. But given that I could travel to many European cities in the same time and for the same money, I wouldn’t be heading there without a very good reason. The Feast tango festival was that very good reason.

I first attended The Feast in December, and fell head-over-heels in love with it …

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Festival, Following, Milonga, Thoughts

The only leader is the music: A joyful Feast

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Felipe Martinez recently talked about the difference between danceable music and music which moves you, literally and figuratively. I think that’s a good way of describing what is, to me, the difference between rhythmic and lyrical tango.

I’d expected the work I was doing on double-time to increase my enjoyment of rhythmic music. It has, but to my surprise, that wasn’t the biggest benefit …

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Festival, Milonga

My first tango festival: Falling head-over-heels in love with Tango Feast

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My first tango festival was supposed to have been in the spring of 2020 – and we all know how that went! It was some 18 months later when I had the opportunity to finally participate in one. The Feast was said to be a very friendly one, so off I went to a very soggy Devon …

It was such a magical event that nothing I could write would do it justice. Plus my sleep-deprived brain likely can’t even remember all the highlights, so view this blog post as just a very inadequate taster …

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