It's not often that I get to travel for pleasure, but this weekend was the exception. As an avid bachata, kizomba, and brazilian zouk dancer- I was really looking forward to dancing all three dances throughout the weekend.
Most festivals that specialize in one dance have a variety of rooms for specific sub-genres of music. For example: A Kizomba festival will have a Kizomba room and an Urban Kiz Room. A Zouk festival will have a Neo Zouk room and a Lamba Zouk room.
Typically, festivals that try to cater to all styles of dance usually end up with one or two rooms being full/packed(usually salsa and bachata), and the remaining rooms(kizomba/brazilian zouk) are usually empty and have very few people dancing.
The DC Zouk Festival is the only festival that I've attended where all three rooms were full/somewhat full and had decent energy. I was able to dance all three styles and feel good in each room. Some people came just for one specific style of dance, others like myself came for two or three different styles.
I'm not one to take workshops, participate in jack and jills, or watch shows- I strictly social dance. Therefore, I can't comment on the quality of the workshops or shows at this festival. From a social dance perspective, this festival was exactly what I was looking for. Sure, the rooms could've been a bit bigger with more dance floor and AC. However, the sound systems and DJs were good and provided a comfortable environment where I could dance kizomba, bachata, and brazilian zouk.
DJ Emerzive and DJ Soltrix played some banger sets with high-energy tracks. I really enjoyed the bachata room more so than the other rooms. The zouk room was too crowded and hot. The kizomba room had it's moments throughout the weekend and the DJs were also laying down some solid sets.
Here's almost 20 minutes from DJ Emerzive's set on Saturday:
Cheers to Sami for a great festival!