Favourite Regular Venue and Freestyle for 2008

[Maxine]

What has been your favourite regular Venue and favourite freestyle(s) this year and why?

Here are my choices

Favourite Regular

Berko – Sunday

For me a runaway winner

Why – Consistently good, fantastic music in two rooms, only weekly blues room that I know. Have had such wonderful dances and memories. I always leave with a smile on face. Well done to Ian, Marc and Rachel for all the hard work you all put in to make this venue so outstanding

Favourite Freestyle(s)

Utopia (London)

Why – Has the best ambience of all the freestyles and Val’s attention to aesthetics, helps create this ambience. Music again, always consistently great. Another thing I like about this organisation is they’re constantly experimenting with new ideas (very brave). Again I had some fantastic dances and rarely leave less than sated. Thanks to the crew there they really go the extra mile to provide a great evening.

Both the above have made this year my favourite year of dance to date so can’t wait to see if 2009 can equal this.

Over to you all what do you think

[Astro]

Favourite regular

Fulham
Why? - 2 hour freestyle, and some nice leads.


Favourite freestyle

Hammersmith
why? - big venue, with good public transport links.

[StokeBloke]

Favorite (fairly) Regular
Maja's Sunday Tea Dance at Albrighton Hall - I am so excited about having an excellent new dance venture full to the brim with passion and soul growing before our eyes at long last in the Midlands

Favorite Freestyle
M-A-R-I-A-C-H-I, any of them, go on, take your pick. They are all so fantastic you couldn't squeeze a cigarette paper between them

Favorite Weekender
Breeze (The one with the Blues Competition), but it only squeaked it past Tiggerbabe's Blues Weekender in Edinburgh

[Caz]

Fave Freestyle
has to be Chilled Sunday in Wetherby... this is what the north has needed for sooo long... I remember walking in and thinking "" and that feeling gets me every time I walk in the door....

[Jive Crazy]

Favorite (fairly) Regular
Maja's Sunday Tea Dance at Albrighton Hall - I am so excited about having an excellent new dance venture full to the brim with passion and soul growing before our eyes at long last in the Midlands

Favorite Freestyle
M-A-R-I-A-C-H-I, any of them, go on, take your pick. They are all so fantastic you couldn't squeeze a cigarette paper between them

Good on you Maja that at times you squeeze both Mariachi and a Brilliant Tea dance into your nights. Bring on 2009 where you will I am sure go from strength to strength.

[Maxine]

Favorite (fairly) Regular
Maja's Sunday Tea Dance at Albrighton Hall - I am so excited about having an excellent new dance venture full to the brim with passion and soul growing before our eyes at long last in the Midlands

Is this an afternoon event because it looks very tempting if it is???

[Maxine]

Favorite Weekender
Breeze (The one with the Blues Competition), but it only squeaked it past Tiggerbabe's Blues Weekender in Edinburgh

That was not only my favourite weekender of the year but my favourite weekender to date. It was just sooo good

[Liz McCaig]

Favorite Freestyle
M-A-R-I-A-C-H-I, any of them, go on, take your pick. They are all so fantastic you couldn't squeeze a cigarette paper between them

JA Eclipse will just not be "Southport" without the afternoon sets...fingers crossed at least for June?

Favorite regular venue
After a year commuting to London and living away from home in the week Berko has become a firm favorite that I'm going to miss going forward (Rachel I love your sets...hopefully I can still make it down occasionally)...

ON THE UPSIDE I am thoroughly enjoying being back up in Cambridgeshire / Bedfordshire and Sara White's choice of music at both Buckden on Sundays and Peterborough pure Blues night on Mondays (Fantastic venue with a great blues atmosphere). Back to being my regular venue! Thanks Sara.

[tsh]

Berko - Reliably good, always worth the trip. Even good music in the main room fairly often.
JiveNites Blues classes - always good, sometimes outstanding - plus a good class.
Wetherby - Yes, it's a long way, but the atmosphere is so much better than anything else that I don't notice the drive.
Mariachi - I don't do almost good enough very well - Mariachi is fab.

[Little Monkey]

Favourite 'regular' venue (not a class night, though): Red Hot and Blue in Edinburgh. Always great music and lots of fantastic dancers.

[ant]

Best regular must be Berko. Why?

- Friendly and intimate practicas.
- Music of Tiger, Marc and Rachel.
- Great regular dancers
- Surprise attendances from other great forumite and non forumite dancers

Best freestyle must be The Barn, Bookham. Why?

- Very friendly venue
- Always a party atmosphere as people can bring in own food and drink
- Good music in both rooms
- The Blues Room becomes a milonga for last part of the evening
- All profits go to charity

I never fail to have a good time at both.

[DavidB]

I've probably danced less this year than for a long time, but there are still two venues I try to make whenever they are on - Twyford Sat freestyles and Utopia. I just always seem to have a good night whenever I go.

[Kel_Warminster]

This is really difficult! I have danced all over the UK during 2008 because of work commitments....my favourite "regular" venue without a doubt has to be a three-way draw; Prestwich on a Monday, Cinnamon Jive on a Tues/Thurs at Bowdon, or Bath Ceroc Live on a Tues when I am at home!

Favourite freestyle of the year...again, I just can't decide between The Big Bath Bash every three months, JagJive at Bookham every few months (I agree with you Ant, the blues/swing room is second to none), or a wonderful night out Mr Cool and I had at Coventry in November.

The best weekender? Breeze in Oct without a doubt, with Sept's Southport running a _very_ close second.

Happy New Year everyone - and happy dancing in 2009!

Kel xx

[Lost Leader]

Good, but tricky question.

Favourite regular venue has to be Rugby for me. There are about half a dozen venues that are nearer to where I live but Rugby is so worth the extra journey time (and it is still only half an hour away) Why?

- Marc and Rachel's fab teaching
- Ditto their DJ'ing
- Kirk (AKA Tall guy, nice shoes) is the best venue host ever
- Late finish for a class night (11:00 am)
- It's on Thursday night so that's where the week-end starts
- One of the best dance floors I've ever come across
- Really friendly atmosphere
- Lots of lovely dancers
- Even gender balance

Yes, Marc and Rachel have really created something special at Rugby and are always prepared to go that extra mile; so thanks for everything you have done in 2008 and long may it continue into 2009 and beyond.

Free-styles?

Well the best new regular events for me have been the Rugby free-styles. There's been one month in 2008 and it will be the same again in 2009 with the added bonus of two of them being two room events. I have had consistently good nights at these right through the year.

Best new venue I have been to in 2008 - The Coliseum in Watford.

Daventry free-styles also consistently excellent, with the Christmas one getting my award for the most improved event.

Agree that anything done by Sara White is bound to be good, if only I could get there more often. I will be making a real effort to her Blues free-styles at Peterborough in 2009.

Venues I most want to attend in 2009 that I have not yet made it to - Red, Hot and Blue in Edinburgh and Dr Chill at Wetherby.

Best week-ender - For me it was Southport in June.

[StokeBloke]

Good, but tricky question....

I pretty much agree with all your comments LostLeader, although I am finding it increasingly hard to justify the huge entry fee for Daventry.

In the credit crunch we are starting to expect two-for-one offers, but Daventry is one-for-two!

[Lost Leader]

It's not that bad (bearing in mind it is a two room event with a very late finish) if you book on-line in advance, but it does get expensive if you decide to go at the last minute and have to pay on the door.

If you book a couple of months ahead you can get a discount of about £4 per ticket and I still managed to save £2 per ticket booking on-line the evening before the Christmas event. Luckily because the venue has huge capacity Daventry events are rarerly, if ever completely sold out in advance, so you don't have to book weeks ahead.

[Jay Jay]

Now we have said goodbye to 2009 and looking back over the year I have to say BERKO has to be my number one favouite regular venue...definitely worth the trek I make to get there and knowing that other regulars like DB, Ant, Marc, Talldave, Mr Darcy and the odd visit from Gerry and Scarface amongst others, help make it normally a guaranteed good evening, especially now that we get an hours practica in beforehand. The music there that Rachel, Mark and Ian provide is always 'bang on'

My favourite freestyle, now that we no longer have the lovely Ashtons, this year has been a hard choice but I must say what a find the venue in Watford is, have enjoyed all the freestyles I have attended there, but I think the masked ball exceeded expectations.

Finally without doubt Breeze has to be the best weekender for me, so many names were put to faces, and dances I still play over in my mind. The whole weekend was just one big enjoyment fest.

Gonna be hard to top 2008 actually but I am going for it all guns blazing

[robd]

I am finding it increasingly hard to justify the huge entry fee for Daventry.

I think the Dav prices are reasonable given that it's a two room 3 a.m. finish. Their entry fees are in line with the Utopia specials e.g Twisted Masquerade, H 'n' H, etc (and probably also similar events from other organisers that I haven't booked for)

[Dottie]

Finally without doubt Breeze has to be the best weekender for me, so many names were put to faces, and dances I still play over in my mind. The whole weekend was just one big enjoyment fest.

Tell me about it!

[Jay Jay]

Tell me about it!

Did the earth move for you too in that blues room?