Like the Septonathon, the Etonathon is not technically a festival, but a series of individual milongas requiring no pre-booking. However, since I’d very much enjoyed the approach of treating the last one like a festival by doing the lot, I decided to do the same again.

This one was a little more … committed. And perhaps I should have been: ten milongas over five days, and with two minor exceptions I was there from start to finish at all of ’em …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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?) …

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 …

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 …

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 …