"To be continued" vol.2 - International festivals & community

This time, I'm writing these lines while returning from a trip to Budapest. The plane is slowly filling up, and it's time to go home. I came to Budapest as an invited guest to One Minute Challenge, organized by my friend Barbara Joo from Herrang and her school, Keep Swinging. I don't know what comes to mind when you hear the word "invited," but I can tell you it's not a very glamorous thing - meaning; you're not picked up from the airport, taken to a 5-star hotel with a reserved room, given some rest, and then picked up again by car for dinner 😅 Generally, in our community, being "invited" means you can enter the festival for free in exchange for a party pass.

For people like me who work 24/7 in this community, the opportunity to go to festivals like One Minute Challenge isn't quite as easy as it might seem from the outside, or as many people might think, "Oh, so you're going to a festival in Budapest, your life is great, you travel, have fun, and dance!" As we all know, the budget for transportation, accommodation, food, and sightseeing can amount to several months' income (I don't know how much everyone earns, but I think it would be at least 3-4 months' income for me 🙃). So, if we have a friend, we curl up on their couch, cook our meals at home, and then head out and about. And when I'm invited to a festival, of course, I don't just sit there. Whether it's carrying stuff, shooting videos for social media, or putting up a fallen poster, I try to help the organizers as much as possible. Because that's what community means to me. Going to festivals abroad like this is something that everyone can do. Believe me, every organizer always needs a lot of help – even if they don't want to or can't admit it!

So, how do we find those festivals? Go to swingplanit.com, which I mentioned in my previous blog, choose a festival on your desired continent, within your chosen date range and dance style, and apply to volunteer. It's that simple! Why not spend your summer vacation in Herrang for a week or two, working and dancing to your heart (or butt) out? Of course, you can go for 6 weeks too! 😅 As the camp's social media manager, I'll also promote it here: I highly recommend the setup week, where we build the camp from scratch. For those wondering what that week is like, you can watch the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMXqAA7vKuk

Let's be honest: working during setup week is incredibly physically exhausting! But the friendships, solidarity, and togetherness formed that week are unparalleled. Wow! Especially if the weather is nice, those who want can go to the beach or a lake for a mini sun-sea day, cycle through the Swedish forests, or walk to the marina and watch the beautiful sunset. By the way, applications to volunteer in Herrang close on April 15th. I do recommend not leaving your application until the last minute, because we've already started reviewing applications and placing suitable people in appropriate positions. One last piece of information: in the application process, it is asked for a reference, and you can write me down, but lately, random people I only know by sight are coming to me and saying things like, "I wrote you down as a reference for the volunteer application for Herrang," and then leaving. A sigh is inserted here..., I wish you would inform your reference beforehand because it's checked, and your suitability for the position is discussed.

A souvenir from one of the taster workshops I gave in Herrang 💞

To talk a little more about Herrang, it's definitely a camp that makes you experience the meaning of community to your very core. A camp created by dancers for dancers! It's unlike any other festival or event. It's an experience that only those who live it truly understand. Like it's a real shame that the whole world isn't there. Or like we should always live the way we live in Herrang, but it feels like we can only experience it for about a month a year…

We get incredibly tired from working, but at the same time, we're incredibly productive, creative, and almost nothing is impossible (we do crazy things like this, but of course, safety comes first). There are always people making music, dancing, working, creating… constantly, I mean li-te-ra-lly cons-tant-ly!!! In a place with so many stimuli at once, it's incredibly important to organize your own energy and capacity accordingly. In fact, that's why we emphasize JOMO (joy of missing out) more than FOMO (fear of missing out). But if you say, "I'll sleep and rest when I die," well, that's up to you 😉

Finally, I want to close this post by stating that Herrang is not a "competition festival." "Competition festival" is actually a label I came up with, but since I've seen it used in conversations with friends in the international community, I've continued to use it to make certain distinctions 😎 As you can probably guess, my next post will be about festivals and competitions. How you doin', ILHC? 😉

To be continued… or next week…