VIVA LATIN SUMMER

I am very disappointed with this festival. DJ Nice Life was announced and even included in the official schedule, but he never performed, and no explanation was given.
The workshops, which lasted only 20 minutes, were not convincing. The lighting on the Kizomba dance floor was poor, and the overall atmosphere was not enjoyable. Only on Sunday was the lighting good.
The DJ schedule was not followed, so it was impossible to rely on the official timetable.
Overall, the festival did not meet my expectations, and for this reason, I will not be attending again next time.

Saturday evening party: Main bachata room was wayyyy too hot; quite some people were annoyed about delayed shows as they wanted to dance and the small Bachata room wasn't open yet; kizomba room/small bachata room had great temperature; music was great; level was great.

The festival hotel was a good airport hotel, but too expensive and it was a big minus that there was no outdoor area or terrace. There were too few leaders - the balance was bad. Workshop schedule changes were not advertised - almost no workshops seemed to be at the correct times, causing me to miss at least 2 I really wanted to take. Many leaders could barely bother to dance and two male artists announced in class they would be dancing in the party between certain times but showed up much later and for a very short time. I actually missed them and someone who was there said they just did a “show” sharing one girl. Not good at all and I felt it showed disrespect to the followers who wanted to dance with them. Overall, I am sorry to say, the festival did not live up to my expectations and felt like a rip-off. I will not be attending Viva again.

The night parties were amazing and really compensated for a lot of frustration I had during the event. Last year I had a Saturday day ticket, loved it so much that I immediately bought the fullpass for this year.
I will shortly summon the points that I experienced as negative:
- 20min workshops, way too short. The teachers really made something out of it though! But this new concept should have been communicated way earlier.... Would absolutely not recommend this for next year.... Tip: communicate that you've learned from it if you don't wanna do this concept next year anymore because for me this will be a big yes or no for if I will attend next year.
- bachata and Kizomba was super separated. Felt more like 2 events on the same location than that it was 1 event. By far loved the location of last year more!
- not being allowed to eat in the lounge. So you needed to go outside to eat
- no shuttle between 12-5am. It was not doable with public transport
- lights in the Kiz room didn't go out during the night party. They found a way in the end but it took a long time
- no bags allowed in the rooms, not even a water bottle. I heard that the guys were not even allowed to bring a towel
- would have been nice if there was proper food you could order
- workshop until 3 (Kiz) was way too short. Would have by far preferred if the workshops were until later and then 1 social room cause the semba room was mostly empty.
- in general it felt like it was all organised around that they almost force you to book a hotel room. Cause the whole schedule was non doable for not staying there.
- J&J that was cancelled last minute
- tokens you needed to buy but then you pay even more fees because it's online etc

Overall... A lot of things that came to the organisation made me really frustrated. Never experienced that before so I am not sure now if I'd like to attend next year again....

Hopefully the organisers recognise the frustration. I heard a lot of people about these things, so that made me realise it's not just me :)

Amazing line up though!!