Life, the Universe and Everything

In 2019 and for over 30 years before, similar dances have been offered once a month on a Saturday night during except during summer. This was the second scheduled event this winter although the first in January was cancelled. In years gone by, entry was usually by cash on the door and numbers could go over 100 although occasionally they were much lower. This event was limited to 80  tickets bought online in advance. All 80 tickets were sold and I know at least two people who missed out.  Quite a few of the dancers were people who would have been there in 2019 but there were a lot of first timers - and that wouldn't have been so unusual prior to the pandemic. The organisers were keen to be "Covid-safe",  all stewards were masked-up and there was guidance on the website: Covid-19 Safety Guidance We know that we need to keep everyone who wants to come to our dances as safe as possible. Our safety guidance for everyone attending is this: If you have Covid symptoms please don’...

 In 2019 and for several decades before, similar dances have been offered once a month on a Friday night during except during summer. This was the second scheduled event this winter although the first in December was cancelled. We certainly had 16 people on the floor quite often and it might have occasionally got up to 20.  In normal times, numbers could go over 100 although occasionally it's much less.  Most of the dancers were people who would have been there in 2019 although I did spot at least one completely novice couple. The organisers were keen to be "Covid-safe" and advertised Compulsory Covid Pass checking Compulsory LFT before attending Compulsory Green/Yellow/Red ribbons for 2019-style/distancing/own partners only choices. These were enforced with the possible exception of the LTF (If the NHS checker App was set to only show "pass" if the vaccination and test were both in order, then it was enforced)  Nearly everyone chose a green ribbon. I've ...

 Chippenham Folk Festival is normally in late-May but this year they put on slightly over a day of events 22-23 October. No campsite was offered and most of the larger venues were not used. Tickets for events were initially only available online although at the last minute, they were made available from the box office. I attended two dance events Balfolk workshop and Bal This attracted about 30 people although I was told that 60 tickets were available. It was held on the Saturday afternoon in Chippenham Town Hall, a superb upstairs room with an excellent floor. A handful of dancers arrived wearing masks and one kept hers on when dancing. Otherwise, it was very much as "normal".  It's difficult to comment on numbers because a directly comparable event didn't happen in pre-pandemic times. My feeling is that in normal times, selling all 60 tickets would have been hard - although had there, by chance, been a lack of recent similar events.it could well have happened. Ceili...

 In normal years,  this festival offers 3-4 ceilidhs on the greenfield site as well as a "Day of Dance" featuring Contra, etc. at a venue in the town. This year, the "Day of Dance" was cancelled and there were just two ceilidhs. The organisers were a little coy about exactly what was on offer saying, "Not comfortable dancing in a crowd? Don’t worry! The evenings will start out as an upbeat standing concert and with callers on hand" and the programme  billed the ceilidhs as  "An evening with" followed by the name of the band. The Friday event did start with an hour of concert but the Saturday was a dance from the start. Concessions to Covid included: A large container of hand sanitiser near the entrance A last minute email from the festival "Please take a Lateral Flow Test within 24 hours before your expected arrival at the site.". This caused some confusion on the Facebook page as people tried to establish what proof they'd need. Th...

 In normal times, this is a series of monthly events attracting over 100 dancers. This was a "restart" event and the intention is that there will be another dance in October and presumably monthly thereafter. Differences from normal included: A different hall with around a quarter of the floor area of the usual spaces. I asked the organiser if this was deliberate but she said not. .The usual spaces were not available. There were nearly always 32 dancers on the floor and no more than 40. This was low compared to the usual 100+ but fitted the hall well. The large number of students normally seen were absent but this is probably because it's still the vacation. It was my impression that the proportion of the very oldest dancers was less and the that the middle-aged were more prominent. I saw 3 masks being worn by 20-somethings Everyone danced normally but perhaps with a little more enthusiasm and joy than normal.

Moira Furnace Folk Festival is a small event usually held in late-August in the North West Leicestershire village of  Moira  which advertised a ceilidh: For comparison here's  video of the 2019 event which shows the same band, venue and number of dancers as at the 2021 event.  It's typical of many smaller festivals in that the ceilidh is a small event with a local band and attracts a crowd of  30-40 people.  So, does this imply that Covid-19 has ceased to impact public dance events? Almost!  I saw just one face covering and the wearer did not attempt to dance  Hand sanitiser was available and I saw a few people use it  The caller asked at the beginning if we were Ok with dances involving touching other people and did we mind changing partners?  There was no dissent and many accepted "Dance line it's 2019" stickers from me On a couple of occasions, the caller made  (possibly humourous) concessions to infection control such as calli...

This post is written to document what is and is not happening as of early August 2021 at a festival that usually sees lots of dancing. It's hoped that the observations will help dancers, organisers and others to plan for the future. Introduction In normal years, this festival has a lot of social dancing in the form of ceilidhs, contras, American squares and the odd Bal or two. Typically, theses events are in marquees or local community halls. The number of  different people dancing over the course of the week probably approaches 1000. By the time the festival started in 2021, "dancing like it was 2019" had been legal for several weeks  but due to the long lead times for booking infrastructure, etc. the cut-down festival planned no indoor events and no dancing.  The Anchor Ceilidhs One of the pubs, The Anchor Inn put on their lunchtime ceilidh series. Differences from 2019 included: No late-afternoon ceilidh Another row of tables on each side of the dancefloor which reduce...