Weekenders - How do you decide?

[Lory]

With so many weekenders to choose from now, how do you decide which one/ones to do?


Q1 How many weekenders a year would you like to do?

Q2, How many a year, can you do?

If like me, you can't do them all, what are your deciding factors?


For me, I like to get an even spread throughout the year, (winter, spring, summer and autumn) the location's not too important but my friends are.

Gender balancing is now high on my list, as is the choice of music styles. The choice DJ's. Space to dance. Good Air con. And the friend's who are going.

Q3. If you had to pick 6 things that are of the upmost importance to you, what would they be?
Here's a few ideas....


Time of year
Gender balancing
Free water
The choice of Dj's
Choices of freestyle music
Daytime Freestyling
Friends going
Tango practice time
Ballroom practice time
Blues
Travelling time
Cost of getting there
Limited numbers
Freestyle finish times
Quallity of floor
Location
The Styles of workshops on offer
Price
Accommodation
The choice of teachers
Private lesson facility
Cabaret
Massage and beauty treatments
Who it's run by

[Tazmanian Devil]

Q1 6-8


Q2 4-6


Q3 For me it would be Who the DJ's are and style of music being played. Freestyle time I love the idea of daytime freestyle for those of us that don't want to do every class. My friends being there will be a bonus although I love meeting new people. Size of dance floors and how many rooms there are to freestyle in. Decent air conditioning. Resonable
prices for water if not supplied free. And last but not least Gender balance I so like the gender balance as oppsed to 1 Standing around waiting for guys to become available and 2 feeling I have to lead as no guys available instead of leading as and when I feel like it.

Opps a few more than 6

[under par]

Great thread idea Lory.

Mrs Par and I are on a current Weekender binge

We are averaging one every 4 weeks which started in January and will continue until June.

So far Storm has been best for us out of the three we have done (Bognor Scarborough and Storm).

We also really enjoyed Scarborough but for different reasons.

I won't mention Bognor I've said it all elsewhere.

We probably wouldn't have planned so many weekenders had we not had the good fortune to win 2 and half of them.

Whats important when booking a weekender?

Definitely lots of friends/forumites/good dancers.

Music and great DJs

Gender balancing is also of growing importance as I hate seeing so many woman standing out waiting and likewise I hate the scrummage at the side of the dancefloor everytime a track ends.

Daytime dancing in a civilised environ is becoming more and more an issue as I do not do many workshops.

A good dance floor also makes a weekender better

Good organisation makes a weekend. Easy booking in/ accessible organisers who touble shoot/ it does what it says on the tin agendas/timetables

I feel the quality levels are rising and am looking forward to Rockbottoms on the Isle of Wight in 2 weeks, not so sure about Franco's Camber in May and can't wait till June....aahhhh....SOUTHPORT!

If I was to describe Mrs Par and I in relation to weekenders I would have to describe us as "FREESTYLE JUNKIES!"

But we also like a good laugh too ..

[Seahorse]

Am amused as I was chatting to Riaz about this today via email... how to conserve funds/make best use of limited time and get the most of what's going on. Spoilt for choice right now.

Daytime freestyle
Meeting new people in the workshops
Experimenting with different styles/ideas (Cuban Blues at Storm)
Water - yes please!
Somewhere to sit and chat - not those damn plastic chairs!
Sunshine
Good DJ's (Kenobe, John Baker and Roger Chin)
Gender balancing (horrible trying to pick partners)

And most importantly my friends.

[Lynn]

I would love to be like Mr and Mrs UP and do one every month... finances and leave allowance restrict me.. but my priorities would be -

Being sensible first - Cost (event plus travel - simply because if the event costs less for me to go to I can go to more per year). After that - not in any particular order...

- Gender balancing (or whatever you want to call it) Esp important for a shy wee thing like me

- Who else is going to be there - friends old and new. (Big to forum friends who have really made weekenders special for me.)

- Quality of event - venue, water availability, air con etc

- The music - some fav DJs, dedicated chill/blues room

- Daytime freestyle time to chilled music - esp Sun afternoon

- Currently for me - tango practice time - this was a big plus for Scarborough and something I'm looking forward to at Southport

- Well organised - If Storm was the way forward for the Ceroc weekenders then those plus the Jive Addiction ones mean we will be spoilt for choice for well run weekenders.

- In other words - lots and lots of freestyle time to great music and somewhere to chill and chat with friends = perfect weekender.

Not too high on my list really are things like workshops, cabarets etc - some of the things I know that organisers go to a lot of effort over which I acknowledge and I know are important for others, but I'm really there to dance as much as possible.

And I don't mind too much about the level of accomodation - as long as its clean and warm enough - its not like I spend that much time in the accomodation anyway!

And I'm sooo looking forward to Southport!

[philsmove]

Breeze will be my first weekender

So why have chosen this one

Location – it is less than an hour away

Friend’s- lots of existing friends in the Bristol aerial are going and I am hoping to meet a lot of my “virtual friends “ e.g. you lot

Who it's run by -The reviews of storm have been good so I'm trusting this will be as well

Gender balancing - too many women over, does not help the atmosphere and I defiantly hate too many men

TANGO - did someone mention my favourite word?

Time of year - important to me as have to work weekends in the summer

[Cruella]

Would love to do a weekender every month, but it takes the other 3 weeks in the month to recover from the lack of sleep!
Realistically i can get away with doing about 4 per year.
I think the most important factor for me is having lots of friends there. I love the social side of the weekenders and rarely do any workshops. The freestyle and amount of men to choose from is the main reason for me going on a weekender. Therefore Gendar balance is important.
So my 6 are:
Friends
As much freestyle as possible (24hours a day would be good )
Gendar balance
Good floors
Blues/chillout room
Good DJ's

[DavidB]

If we are not teaching, then it has to be somewhere I'd choose to go for a non-dancing weekend. Scotland & Heythrop are the only ones I'd consider.

If we are teaching, then it has to be reasonable accomodation. This only adds Bognor to the list. (Rock Bottoms would be there, but they always want a cabaret from the teachers as well.) Accomodation is the reason I won't go to Camber, or Southport, or Breen again.

Everything else I can get in a normal weekend in and around London. So why put up with a cold, dirty chalet, an uncomfortable bed and 6 people sharing one bathroom just for another freestyle?

The only thing that would make a difference would be a guest teacher or cabaret.

[El Salsero Gringo]

Originally Posted by DavidB

So why put up with a cold, dirty chalet, an uncomfortable bed and 6 people sharing one bathroom just for another freestyle?

If anyone can come up with a convincing answer to this question, I might be tempted to actually try a weekender for once.

[LilyB]

Originally Posted by El Salsero Gringo

If anyone can come up with a convincing answer to this question, I might be tempted to actually try a weekender for once.

Instead of an answer to that question, how about this for a reason why you should go on a weekender?

http://www.cerocoxford.com/events.html

Costs a tad more than the likes of Camber, though . We aim to give it a try ourselves. Report to follow .

[Lynn]

Originally Posted by philsmove

Breeze will be my first weekender... snip..TANGO - did someone mention my favourite word?

I'm sure Breeze will be a great event... but...don't count on there definitely being any tango - not if you are going by the line up of 'dance activities'. For a start it looks to be exactly the same one as Storm - ie they haven't worked out all their workshop details yet (understandable when the event isn't till Oct) and also because despite being listed in the activities for Storm on the website there wasn't actually any Tango classes at Storm when the workshop schedule came out.

(There will be some Tango classes at Southport in June, plus they are hopefully planning some milonga time.)

[El Salsero Gringo]

Originally Posted by LilyB

Instead of an answer to that question, how about this for a reason why you should go on a weekender?

Nope - doesn't even start to do it for me. Sorry.

[foxylady]

Originally Posted by DavidB

So why put up with a cold, dirty chalet, an uncomfortable bed and 6 people sharing one bathroom just for another freestyle?

That was exactly my view on Camber...

However I was persuaded to Southport, and found that only 3 people had to share the bathroom (in a similar sized 2 bedded chalet to the one I had occupied at Camber), and not only that the standard of dancing was phenomenal, and the scottish people were there ....

It seems I am prepared to put up with accomodation I would not normally give a second look to, but I have to have the appropriate incentive !

[Yliander]

Southport this year will be my first UK weekender

But am looking at other ones that will be on while I am in the UK – and I have to say that things that I take into consideration are

Cost – both event and travel
Workshops – teachers and subjects I want to do
Quality of floor
Gender Balance – as I have to go on my own knowing that there won’t be 14 girls to every 1 guy is a relief
And if I am working Leave - can I get/afford time off work

Except for the gender balance these are the same things I consider when looking at going to Australian Weekenders - the other thing I consider in Aus is Friends going – either yeah chance to meet old ones or a chance to make new ones

Free water is an odd one for me – I would just assume that water would be provided free – plus if the accommodation has kitchens well I can just fill my water bottle in my room

[Andy McGregor]

We go to these weekenders for one thing. That thing is dancing. So I go for the things that relate to dancing. For me those are music and floor. I've never been let down by quality of partners and quality of accommodation has never been a priority - not even the temperature.

Who cares about food or extra-curricular activities? A weekend with a great floor and good music would be perfect if I just had a half dozen of my favourite dance partners. My hit list of favourite dance partners would be Lory, Mr and Mrs Par, Nina, Zebra Woman, Lynn, Sparkles, Northants Girly, Mrs McG, Asif, Commis Chef, Chef, Pammy, Divissima, Wittybird, Fletch, Katie, The Tramp, Sylph, Lou, Lindyloo, MinnieM, Rachel, Swinging Bee, Tiggerbabe, and, last but not least, Wendy. So, that's 26 favourite partners. Bearing in mind that they might want to dance with other people, a weekender with just 60 people would be fab and, taking into account the non-forumites who I love to dance with, a weekend of 100 dancers with a fab floor and great music would be sublime. Who needs these massive weekenders? Organisers, that's who.

Maybe I should organise a few selective weekenders for my favourite few - selfish? Moi?

[Frankie_4711]

Storm was my first weekender so I had nothing to go on, except price and location (nice and near!).

Now that I have had the experience, things I feel are quite important would be (in not particular order):

- Water!
- Blues room
- Good range of workshops
- Price (including travel, and therefore location also comes into it)

Not having experienced a non-'gender-balanced' event it is difficult for me to comment, but I think it is probably a good idea.

Things that are unimportant:

- Cabaret
- Accommodation (as long as it's not TOO bad!)
- Friends - when I booked Storm, and right up until I was there, I didn't know who/if anyone I knew was going to be there. Once I arrived, it was nice to see a few familiar faces, but I'm there to dance with anyone and everyone, so it doesn't really matter who else is there! (although this is probably because I don't consider most of the people I 'know' at Ceroc as 'friends' - they're just people I see each week and dance with! I don't see them outside of Ceroc and I don't chat - too busy dancing!)

[Zebra Woman]

Originally Posted by Lory

If you had to pick 6 things that are of the upmost importance to you, what would they be?[/b]
Here's a few ideas....[/color]

My top 6:

Gender balancing - I wouldn't even consider a weekender without it now.

Friends going - Gotta love 'em .

The choice of Dj's - I'm looking for :Marc, TWK, Sheena, Greg, John Baker, DD. And I'd like to know in advance who's Dj-ing so I can make my choice of weekender.

Quality of floor - Crucial to me. I really need a smooth floor in the blues room then I can dance there as much as I want without getting sore feet. MDF is fine.

Freestyle finish times - Later the better.

Daytime Freestyling - I like to have the option, but sometimes daytime napping is what I actually do.


Next most important 7:

Time of year - Spread evenly thoughout the year suits me (max 4). Prefer warm weather.

Free water
Blues
Choices of freestyle music
Limited numbers
Price
Travelling time
Location - Love the chance to meet Scottish and northern dancers so up north is a big plus for me. Not having a chalet adjoining Franck and Sheena that's also important.


I only ever share a chalet with 1 person so overcrowding and bathroom queues have never been an issue. I just compare the chalet's to a tent, and I know which I'd prefer. A few home comforts like bedding ,an electric blanket and a rotating electric room heater like Mr and Mrs Par have :greeneyed smiley:, some alchohol and decent food and I'm fine. It's only 3 nights after all.


ZW

[Andy McGregor]

Originally Posted by Zebra Woman

I only ever share a chalet with 1 person

Ooooh! Pick me...