I Love Bachata

Before I tell you about the Festival, let me tell you a wonderful story full of romance and passion.

Meet Peter Holmquist, he was crazy for a girl called Christine Dottax. He wanted to find a way to impress her. So he decided to organise a Bachata Workshop so he invites an international instructor (Jorge Elizondo). By doing this it gives him the perfect excuse to ask her if she would be his partner to practise with. His plan worked and not only did she partner him but she fell in Love with him…

… 2 years later here they are organising what is to become an important benchmark in history. The 1st Bachata Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden on the 31st May - 1st June 08!

Ok so now Peter and Christine are crazy about Bachata and after having a discussion with myself they make the decision and begin organising a Festival.

So they invite Myself and partner Daniela and Rodney ‘Rodchata’ Aquino from San Francisco who partners up with Tove from Gothenburg. Then for the evening entertainment the ‘Bachata King’ and DJ Ferrer from Stockholm come onboard.

The weekend is now set and the tickets are put on sale.

So we arrive there on Thursday to get a tour of the city, Peter takes us up on a hill with a beautiful view and for a walk along the river (what a romantic guy he is!). Then take us out for a dance on a Roof top club called ‘Henriksberg’. We had a wonderful time and the great thing that the sun didn’t set til around midnite… wow and a great opportunity for Myself, Dani and Rodney to dance with the locals!

So Friday morning and Peter has organised a surprised team building day out at the ‘GÖkboet’. So he take us to battle it with some Sumo Wrestling, Bull Riding, Bungee Running and many more physical and mental activites! What a great laugh we had and me and Rodney went head to head and lucky for me I kicked his butt! hahahaha maybe next time Rochata.

OK so we had a fun day out but we were unaware of how much we will have to suffer for it. For the next few day I bodies will remind us that we are no longer spring chickens.

So poor Rodney and Tove kicked off the weekend workshops on Saturday morning, whilst I relaxed and poor Daniela had to cook Pasta and Tiramisi for 80 people, but it was worth it and our poor knackered students needed it to take the afternoon workshops with myself and Daniela.

Saturday night and the Bachata Kings have come to rock the house we some classic Bachata and Merengues and boy did we have fun! DJ Ferrer then took the decks to keep people dancing the night away and it was great to see everyone leaving with a pleasant smile on their faces.

Sunday morning myself, Daniela, Peter and Christine had to drag ourselves out to bed. We arrive to the studio to see 100 people ready to do a day full of workshops. We had so much fun teaching them that it made my weekend. Poor Rodney takes the afternoon session but now he was suffering from lack of sleep due to Jetlag, but he pulls off a fantastic afternoon workshop to finish it all off.

Sunday Night was quieter than Saturday but I guess that is expected especially since the Sun had decided to smile on Gothenburg all week, but never the less we had a great night and as promised Rodney got to dance with a Beautiful Swedish blonde.

I had a fantastic time and would like to thank Peter, Christine and staff, also Rodney and Tove and the 100s of Bachateros who made the whole weekend a pleasure. If you didn’t make this one, dont miss it next year!

Visit: www.bachata.se

Tony