Amy’s Memories of the Brussels Tango Festival

We are in Brussels for a six day Tango Festival, the last stop in Europe before we head to the Pacific Northwest. 

Six days is long for a festival. The only other festival we attend that long is  Valentango.  The big difference, however, is the Brussels event is not held in a  hotel. It is spread out all over the city. Perhaps there are no hotels large enough for the nighttime events but that’s is hard to imagine as Brussels is full of huge buildings, both modern and ancient. Around midnight I would estimate there are a thousand dancers. 

The milonga pass was cheap- about a hundred dollars. But the taxi/uber rides four directions a day for six days surpassed that cost. 

Events were in a variety of locations around town. The first milonga was in a chateau which was like an urban estate. Hard to tell at night. I think we were dancing in the former stables. The second location was a pretty ballroom in a former palace. The night location over the weekend was a large convention  center, a former factory perhaps or possibly a central post office since it was called Hotel Poste. The workshops were located in local dance studios in other parts of town. 

There are no photos because it is very difficult to add photos to this blog.i hope to change blog sites before my next post so I can add lots of photos. 

In my experience there is always lots of water available at milongas and festivals. There is here too....for a euro and a half for a small glass (@ $1.75). No free snacks, no water. Maybe that is a Belgian thing. There was no free water at our hotel either.

A large proportion of the dancers are from outside Belgium so it’s relatively easy to get dances as no one knows anyone, other than the ‘hometown clique’ who largely dance with each other. Dancers came from all over Europe. As far as I could tell we were the only Americans although this does not seem possible. Actually we had a sense we were the some of the few Americans in Europe this spring. We literally never met any (although we did have a visit from a friend) but I did hear a North American accent from time to time on the street. 

Thus far I have danced with people from 9 countries, Franklin one or two more. Although we start our pre-tanda pleasantries in French (where are you from?), the language most of us have in common is English. There are no expectations of having a common language but it is a plus if you do. Belgium is a bilingual country (French and Flemish) but most people seem fluent in English as well.

 Cabesceos seem to be offered on a basis of height or propinquity (if they were standing or sitting nearby), or a previous connection. There are dancers of all ages  and as is often the case, most are middle aged. There may be more women than men but the imbalance is not too bad. 

The clothes are sophisticated and a significant number of leads and follows made an effort to dress the themes of the night (James Bond, Grease, Bonnie and Clyde, Great Gatsby). 

The music is all traditional. 

There are half a dozen female leaders, all good. There have been no men dancing together. 

 Most of my dances have been salon style, although, Franklin says his partners are dancing close embrace. I cannot account for this difference other than I am letting the leads set the embrace. 

 By Monday many or even most of the foreign dancers have left, leaving mostly locals for the Monday afternoon milonga. It was located in a small dance studio, a regular local venue, one of the locations used for the workshops. It was a hot, cramped venue. Although I had a good number of tandas in the evening milongas,  I  felt  more or less invisible to the hometown Brussels dancers. Or maybe I had trouble making that location work for me. Anyway I plan to skip the Tuesday day milonga (the six hour closing event) and go sightseeing in the medieval town of Ghent instead tomorrow. But Franklin will see it to the end. 

The Monday night milonga was larger but still also a dance studio. We danced some but it was hot and crowded and we left early. 

So what do we think of our festival experience? Well, I think going to a festival in Europe is an exciting and fun place to dance. But I would only return to a hotel venue. With air conditioning. And I would look for a more exciting location. Brussels is downright boring (see my next blog for more on this).