Nizana El Rassan A good festival is well organized and has a mix of performances, workshops and vending. I’ve had the joy and privilege of attending a number of great festivals across the US. There are many festivals in the US and around the world that are also fantastic that I wish I could go to. There are one day festivals like Harlem Hafla in NYC, and there are multi-day festivals like Jamballah Northwest in Portland. There is so much work involved in putting a festival together, so kudos are in order for festival organizers!
While they are now part of belly dance history, there are a number of festival s that deserve a shout out. Rakkasah, East and West, was a long running, bi-coastal event of great magnitude, and I did enjoy time spent at Rakkasah West. Other fabulous events included the Mediterranean Fantasy Festival in Seattle, Powers of Belly Dance in Yakima, WA, both of which I attended for most of each of their 25 years, and Yah Halla Y’all in Texas. I know there are many more worth mentioning.
Current festivals have bounced back after the pandemic in full force, from Cairo Shimmy Quake in LA to Festival of the Nile in Orlando, Florida. Essence of Belly Dance in Atlanta, Fusion Evolution in Chicago, and Art of the Belly in Ocean City, MD are all wonderful options. Rakkas Istanbul and Ahlan Wa Sahlan in Cairo are fantastic international events. Raq the Harbor in Gig Harbor, WA is back this year and one long running festival that is due to come back after being on hiatus, and moving from Portland, OR to Texas is Saqra’s Belly Dance Showcase next April!
Festival organizers do a lot of work and spend a lot of time putting a festival together. A good group of helpers is paramount to help cover all the many facets of a festival, from registrations to signage to technology and so much more. Working to bring in a variety of quality instructors, scheduling, working with the venue and bearing the financial risks are all heavy lifts.
There are also so many details, and some organizers are better than others at this part. Details are things like bottled water for workshop recipients, little gift bags for registrants, personalized backdrops and a welcoming stage manager who can handle stress. It’s making sure the bathrooms have toilet paper. It’s also a laser focus on your registration list activities, follow through with timely communications and constant advertising without oversaturating people.
It’s a balance of making it a quality experience everyone enjoys and talks about, wants to return to and is reasonably priced, and is not going to leave you short with all of the inherent expenses. The venue contract spells out all that is covered there from the building to staffing, security, AV, and there is insurance, deposits, instructor pay, supplies and incidentals. There are just so many things that go into a successful festival, especially if it’s an annual or ongoing event.
The rewards include the intrinsic-seeing all the smiles in all the photographs, all the hugs, knowing that dancers are reunited at festivals where they might not get to see each other anywhere else. They provide a place for vendors to vend, and dancers to dance and learn and teach. The “rewards” also include at least breaking even, if not making a profit for seed money for the following year. Support your festivals whenever you can; they are a lot of fun and they pretty much have all you need in one spot!
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