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Cruella
4th-January-2006, 10:54 PM
I'm having a hell of a job finding a venue for a fund raising freestyle!
It's got me thinking about how far people will travel for a good freestyle with top Dj's.
I know that I regularly travel 1 1/2 - 2 hours to London for a good nights dancing.
What would it take to make you travel that bit further?

Msfab
4th-January-2006, 11:16 PM
If all the right ingredients were there
Like travel Buddies (long journeys are boring on your own), Favourite DJs and of course a load of dancers.

The length of freestyle would most definitely be a big factor - I don’t really want to travel 2 hours there and 2 back for just a few hours of dancing.

It probably not just the length of time that would be a factor, the distance! It takes us on average to get to Greenwich which is only 30 miles - Up to 2 hours and on a good day 1 hour 45 min. :sick:

Whereas last week I ventured up to Daventry which took us just over 1hr 45min to do 89 miles, but we had freestyle until 2am which made the trip worth the distance and time. I probably wouldn’t do it every week but for a special night, why not!:clap:

David Bailey
4th-January-2006, 11:27 PM
I voted 30 minutes - but it depends on what you mean by "good".

For a good regular freestyle session, 30 mins.

For an exceptional one-off session, of the once-every-couple-of-months variety, then maybe an hour or so. Example: Daventry, Xmas balls, that sort of thing.

But then, I'm lucky enough to live in London, and I have numerous good freestyles on every week, all within 30 mins travel or less. And that's one advantage not mentioned in the "Slag-off-London" (oops, I meant "London Underground") thread.

Piglet
4th-January-2006, 11:42 PM
I have travelled down to Stirling a few times for the style/technique workshops that Franck does and freestyle after (which has always been a delight to date).

I'm happy to travel that distance because of the variety of dancers and the type of class involved, but have to leave much earlier than the end because of work the next morning :tears: (Crossing my fingers that there's a bank holiday Monday that crops up somewhere along the way so I can stay to the end!)

ducasi
4th-January-2006, 11:52 PM
I have travelled down to Stirling a few times for the style/technique workshops that Franck does and freestyle after (which has always been a delight to date).

I'm happy to travel that distance because of the variety of dancers and the type of class involved, but have to leave much earlier than the end because of work the next morning :tears: (Crossing my fingers that there's a bank holiday Monday that crops up somewhere along the way so I can stay to the end!)
And I've travelled up to Aberdeen from Glasgow, which is 3-4 hours... Was going to do it by train (staying over-night, thanks Piglet :hug:) but found someone equally mad to give me a lift there and most of the way back. (Thanks to you too. :hug:)

Normally the hour or so to and from Edinburgh or Stirling would be my maximum, but I'd do a longer journey to, say Dundee if it was a special occasion.

So, to move from the specfic to the general, I'd travel extra far or long for a special occasion, with the right dancers, but mainly 'cos I'm nuts. :D

Piglet
4th-January-2006, 11:58 PM
And I've travelled up to Aberdeen from Glasgow, which is 3-4 hours...
And I've done the reverse journey but tied it in with a Perth class the day after on the way home - and also did the BFG, but I did find it a bit far for a normal weekend - bummer missing the Sunday night party - the idea of becoming a supply teacher (or a lady of leisure :whistle: ) is becoming more appealing by the minute.

TheTramp
4th-January-2006, 11:59 PM
I did 2000 miles and 4 hours of flying for one once.... :whistle:







(There's no option on the poll for this...)

Piglet
5th-January-2006, 12:01 AM
I did 2000 miles and 4 hours of flying for one once.... :whistle:
OK - you win (again!) shame there's no prize :rolleyes:



but would you say that was just for the good freestyle??

TheTramp
5th-January-2006, 12:03 AM
but would you say that was just for the good freestyle??

Pretty much. Though, it was nice to have a day in New Zealand as well :D

Piglet
5th-January-2006, 12:06 AM
There you go Cruella - book New Zealand and give us a couple of months warning :D Reckon me and Ducasi and Tramp might go along :D :D :D

ducasi
5th-January-2006, 12:09 AM
There you go Cruella - book New Zealand and give us a couple of months warning :D Reckon me and Ducasi and Tramp might go along :D :D :D
:yeah:

TheTramp
5th-January-2006, 12:11 AM
There you go Cruella - book New Zealand and give us a couple of months warning :D Reckon me and Ducasi and Tramp might go along :D :D :D

Yeah!!

Especially if it in the middle of June.

When I'll be there anyhow :whistle:

philsmove
5th-January-2006, 12:58 AM
Really Good up to 1 hour

But really really good - time and distance is not an issue

Cruella
5th-January-2006, 09:17 AM
Ok so what would make this a good freestyle? If it's got the usual, good floor lot's of space, good parking, pure freestyle (no lessons). Great DJ's. Maybe a possible cabaret? I need some feedback, so it's appealing to the masses. :flower:

Msfab
5th-January-2006, 09:42 AM
Ok so what would make this a good freestyle? If it's got the usual, good floor lot's of space, good parking, pure freestyle (no lessons). Great DJ's. Maybe a possible cabaret? I need some feedback, so it's appealing to the masses. :flower:

If you have to have a cabaret, please keep it to a single short one!
If there is more than one room (E.G. WCS/Blues) thats also big bonus!

Zebra Woman
5th-January-2006, 09:46 AM
Ok so what would make this a good freestyle? If it's got the usual, good floor lot's of space, good parking, pure freestyle (no lessons). Great DJ's. Maybe a possible cabaret? I need some feedback, so it's appealing to the masses. :flower:

Let me be the first to say - I don't think we're representative of the 'masses'...:whistle:

Appealing to me would be ,everything you've listed plus:
Aircon/decent cooling, no smoking, my very fave DJs (Toby Marc/Greg/Ian), a really long freestyle 8-2AM, amazing cabaret that only lasts 15 minutes (Darren Gough and Lilia perhaps...or those professional Tango dancers from SCD ).

Appealing to the masses : I would guess a fun DWAS comp with awesomely good prizes, but that's a lot of squares of paper and saftey pins to organise .


How far would I go?

I like to dance for longer than I spend driving, so 2hrs each way for a 4hr freestyle works for me (so long as I love the music) . I used to think Greenwich was too far but not anymore. :clap:

ZW

clevedonboy
5th-January-2006, 10:10 AM
Ok so what would make this a good freestyle? If it's got the usual, good floor lot's of space, good parking, pure freestyle (no lessons). Great DJ's. Maybe a possible cabaret? I need some feedback, so it's appealing to the masses. :flower:
A live band (but not the Jive Aces!)

If the band is good we'll go long distance - 350 mile round trip to see Blue Harlem in Bedford

Zebra Woman
5th-January-2006, 10:23 AM
A live band (but not the Jive Aces!)

If the band is good we'll go long distance - 350 mile round trip to see Blue Harlem in Bedford

Arrggghh!! :sick: :sick: :sick:

Please NOT a live band ! :tears:



(Sorry Clevendonboy - so far I have never come across a band I prefer to my fave DJs)

ZW:flower:

stewart38
5th-January-2006, 10:30 AM
There you go Cruella - book New Zealand and give us a couple of months warning :D Reckon me and Ducasi and Tramp might go along :D :D :D


If there is no coffee queue count me in :yeah:

Ive always wanted to travel to NZ

clevedonboy
5th-January-2006, 10:57 AM
Arrggghh!! :sick: :sick: :sick:

Please NOT a live band ! :tears:



(Sorry Clevendonboy - so far I have never come across a band I prefer to my fave DJs)

ZW:flower:

That's ok, your opinion is equally valid to mine - but the question was what would appeal to the masses - good live bands will sell out

TiggsTours
5th-January-2006, 10:59 AM
I found this hard to answer really. When I was living in Brighton, I'd regularly travel to London for a good freestyle, so I would have put up to 2 hours, but now that I live in London, I don't have to travel that far, so I put up to an hour.

ChrisA
5th-January-2006, 11:49 AM
Ok so what would make this a good freestyle? If it's got the usual, good floor lot's of space, good parking, pure freestyle (no lessons). Great DJ's.

Great so far....



Maybe a possible cabaret?

No problem with that...



...so it's appealing to the masses. :flower:
Ah. :(

Er, hope you have a nice time... :whistle:

Seriously, I'd only travel far for the sort of DJs that seem not to appeal to the masses.

Zebra Woman
5th-January-2006, 12:20 PM
Seriously, I'd only travel far for the sort of DJs that seem not to appeal to the masses.

:yeah:
True for me too. There are less than 5 DJs I would drive 2 hours for. And if I did spend 4 hours in my car, I would want to be sure that they weren't intending to be 'appealing to the masses' too much on that particular night.

LMC
5th-January-2006, 01:13 PM
Many people have problems organising charity events because they are trying so hard to get as many people in as possible that they want the event to be all things to all people.

That rarely happens - and I think the evidence on this thread so far is that it ain't gonna!

Cruella, IMO, your best bet is to take a top-down approach - work within the limits of what you get. The most important thing IMO will be to try to nail down a venue which will let you have the space FOC or really cheap. THEN decide what kind of event it will be - one to appeal to the masses with cheaper tickets, more mainstream music if a large venue and easy to get to. If it's a small venue, then go for the "different appeal" option. I'm working on the assumption that you already have had a DJ offer :) - hope so! In which case (assuming you've got the venue cheap or free), costs will be minimal and most of what you make on the door will be a profit to the charity whether it's a large or small event.

I know you would love to have a T-jive style event with all your friends there and 1000s of other people too - but for just this one night, the bigger picture is to help the charity, so even if you do end up with a larger more "mass market" event which is too far away for some of your friends, others of your friends (who are closer in distance) will surely be there to support you and you'll have the real feel-good factor of having made a really huge contribution to the cause!

Zebra Woman
5th-January-2006, 02:29 PM
I know you would love to have a T-jive style event with all your friends there and 1000s of other people too - but for just this one night, the bigger picture is to help the charity, so even if you do end up with a larger more "mass market" event which is too far away for some of your friends, others of your friends (who are closer in distance) will surely be there to support you and you'll have the real feel-good factor of having made a really huge contribution to the cause!

:yeah: Cruella knows she has my support on this occasion, even if she chooses to cater for 'the masses'. It's for cystic fibrosis after all. Oh, and let's not forget.... sending her precious husband away somewhere very very cold probably with not enough food too... :sick:

LMC
5th-January-2006, 03:07 PM
And if it's a smaller event with the non-mainstream appeal, then it will still be money for the charity that otherwise wouldn't have been there - plus you will have had an oustanding fabulous superlative time rather than just a good one.

Giving to charity should feel good :nice:

Cruella
5th-January-2006, 06:03 PM
:yeah: Cruella knows she has my support on this occasion, even if she chooses to cater for 'the masses'. It's for cystic fibrosis after all. Oh, and let's not forget.... sending her precious husband away somewhere very very cold probably with not enough food too... :sick:
:kiss: :hug: :flower:
He said he thinks he might even look forward to my cooking by the time he returns!!!!

Zebra Woman
5th-January-2006, 06:38 PM
:kiss: :hug: :flower:
He said he thinks he might even look forward to my cooking by the time he returns!!!!

Well...er....that's one way to build up an appetite! :really:


Must admit I can think of better.

ZW:devil:

fletch
5th-January-2006, 07:16 PM
Half an hour for a freestyle I wish, my nearest is 1 hour, it took just over 4 hours to Big Fat Friday a few weeks ago the traffic and weather was very bad,:tears: but a guess its like child birth you soon forget the pain and find yourself doing it all over again.:eek: :D

jammy
5th-January-2006, 07:35 PM
i would come if its not 2 far and other ppl from up here would go down. i would aslo like it if there was a ceroc scotland dj playin a set. jx

Lynn
5th-January-2006, 07:48 PM
Half an hour for a freestyle I wish, my nearest is 1 hour, it took just over 4 hours to Big Fat Friday a few weeks ago the traffic and weather was very bad,:tears: but a guess its like child birth you soon forget the pain and find yourself doing it all over again.:eek: :DWell it probably took me about 4 hours total travelling when I went to Ashtons a few weeks ago...but then again that did include a flight, train, bus and car journey!

TheTramp
6th-January-2006, 02:31 AM
I thought that you were in London for something else Lynn, and then went to Ashtons.

That doesn't really count then! :flower:

fletch
6th-January-2006, 04:49 PM
Well it probably took me about 4 hours total travelling when I went to Ashtons a few weeks ago...but then again that did include a flight, train, bus and car journey!

That's dedication:worthy: them southern softies have got it easy:na:

Lynn
7th-January-2006, 12:31 AM
I thought that you were in London for something else Lynn, and then went to Ashtons.

That doesn't really count then! :flower:Well yes... though to be honest the 'something else' was partly an excuse to come and do some dancing! But I know what you mean, I wouldn't actually fly over just for one evening's dancing (my last visit combined the meeting, dancing 3 times and catching up with a friend, oh and dance shoe shopping of course!) But I do have to get on a plane to get a really good nights freestyle!

Though of course I now will be able to go dancing within 10 mins of home!:clap:

Missy D
7th-January-2006, 01:10 PM
But then, I'm lucky enough to live in London, and I have numerous good freestyles on every week, all within 30 mins travel or less. And that's one advantage not mentioned in the "Slag-off-London" (oops, I meant "London Underground") thread.

I also live in London near the grumpy, the long one and the queen. I dont use the underground to much but, think its a great form of travel despite what i wrote in the "London Underground" thread (different issue completely).

I would travel up to 2 hours by car for a good freestyle night but, would probably look for somewhere to stay over too.

Cruella
9th-January-2006, 02:26 PM
Finally i've booked a venue for the charity dance. It's on the 18th February. 8pm til 1am. The venue is The Saxon Suite, Daventry Leisure Centre. Daventry, Northants. NN11 5AF. I've secured top DJ's and am so excited
I'll post full details when all is finalised.
Please tell all your friends and your friends, friends etc...

No live band sorry Clevedonboy, and definately no coffee queue:whistle:

LMC
9th-January-2006, 03:00 PM
Been there for a workshop - as long as they have cleaned the chewing gum off the floor then it will be a fantastic venue. Look forward to hearing details :nice: