SalsaBoston.com Message Board SalsaBoston.com Message Board
Posted by Olaf on September 02, 2006 at 12:37:46:
In Reply to: Re: Boston Congress, can we do it? posted by Craig on August 25, 2006 at 15:46:32:
From my observations, the Melendez congress is dominated in terms of attendance by people coming up from New York, certainly Sat. nights. No offense intended, but I like to think of it as "New York comes to Boston, does a Congress and goes home". I've been to a number of his, here and elsewhere, and they are typically show after show after show, with no attention to the atmosphere of the place (lighting, vending, decorations, crowd flow, quality of the production and performances, etc.) They have been lighter on attendance on Fridays and Sundays, so I don't know how they do financially, and I know that the hotel last year had all kinds of problems with afterhours noise. While I'm sure many people enjoyed themselves (hey, knock yourselves out as far as I'm concerned), it's not the kind of event that Hernan, Troy, nor I want to run, and we've been successful at putting together something that really has had a very warm and unique feel the last few years. i.e. something that is more than "just another congress". There is a lot of history behind that, but unfortunately, it is very expensive and time consuming to organize.
Anyway, that's what this is about. It's not about On1 or On2 or politics. Yes, we could support one congress but the fact is that Melendez had talked to me off and on about doing something together until one day he rolled into town with April who had her own agenda after out of the blue publically boycotting our congress a few months earlier because she wasn't getting paid enough (she's since graciously apologized), and it really hasn't been talked about since. I think there's a mutual disinterest in that quite frankly, and we've sort of agreed to coexist.
However, I also heard an unsubstantiated rumor that Melendez/April weren't going to be doing it again anyway, so we might go from one to two to no congresses in Boston.
So, again, I'm trying to figure out if enough Boston Salseros want us to do a full blown event and will support it not just in spirit but financially. At this point it doesn't really look that way, which is fine--we will probably do something smaller but with the same vibe, and focus on some other things on the plate as well.
-Olaf
: The spring Congress is put on by David Melendez, a New Yorker and April (not sure where she is from but lives in NY now as far as I know). Nothing against April personally but I prefer to support a true Bostonian, someone who has been around to make the scene what it is today IN BOSTON and not just reap the benefits like David Melendez (nothing personal again). I don't want to be baby NY or NY lite or something. We have our own scene, our own dancers and style (mostly On1) and our own people I personally think we should support financially. So I say don't put all your focus on the NY event that just happens to be located in Boston in the spring. Let's make a true Boston Congress happen again...just my 2 cents. And by the way I would and have attended both but if I had to choose one it would be Bostonian run.