PART 2: Keeping salsa venues in Auckland ALIVE!
- perhaps even improve them...

Comparing Auckland to another metropolitan city.

By Latinissimo : 18th June 2007

Ok, so London has a population of about 8 million and Auckland 1.3... and of course lots of venues to choose from. Lots of things can be argued here. But lets take a look at another metropolitan city that can be compared to Auckland in terms of population - my home town of Stockholm, Sweden.

Stockholm has a population of about 1.5 million and is the capital of Sweden. The biggest city in the country and yes, they also have the best and biggest Latin dance scene in the country.

I haven't been in Stockholm for the past 2 years but I sure keep up with everything that happens there and of course I get regular updates from "salsa friends", all the gossip etc.

Summer has just started in Europe and Sweden changes completely after being through the horrible 5-6 months of cold and dark autumn and winter - trust me I know those months faaar too well! During summer it's like being on another planet, people change in both attitude and looks. People want to have a lot of fun, specially the Latin dance enthusiasts!

Weekly Latin happenings are all over the city and country - small, big, out doors, indoors, special "salsa cruises" on some seriously magnificent cruise liners, pool parties etc. The organizers can't wait to put on these events because they know their investments will have a return and people love it!

Below, I have listed some of the 2007 summer events in Stockholm, Sweden. I have translated the information from their websites to give you an idea of what the events are about.

- DjungelSalsa - Swedish spelling (Weekly outdoor event from Sat May 26 - Sat Sep 1. An event for "dancers" to come and dance, relax and have fun on Saturdays. They have just bought brand new BBQs for people to bring their meats. They have a salsa DJ, provide plastic/paper plates, cups, cutlery even a tent to cover the dance floor in case of rain! The dance floor is quite big by the way, 12x12 meters. They also provide a café where you can buy tea, coffee, soft drinks, bakery etc.) 5:00pm - 10:00pm Cost: $10 - this event goes indoors after the summer season.


That's me, this photo was taken 3 years ago almost on the day..! I actually remember this day, I even have video footage of this day!

- Club Salsa (Every Sunday from 3 June - 1 Sep. Summer Salsa Pool Party, great central outdoor location 2 swimming pools, wooden floor for dancing, huge tents, restaurant and much more! Salsa classes Beginner (All Styles 6-8pm), LA Style (Improver-Advanced 6-7pm), Cuban/Miami Style (Improver-Advanced 7-8m). Outdoors dancing with Djs Wilson and Papito from 8pm - 11pm.) Cost: $20 with or without lesson - this event goes indoors after the summer season.

- Bar Brasil XL (This venue runs yearly, but every summer they do something special. This summer they are doing so 15 June - 31 August summer parties. Outdoor terrace available. 4 DJ's on 3 dance floors playing Brazilian music, Soca, Funk, Salsa, Dancehall, RnB, Reggaeton and more. Open 10:00pm - 3:00am
Cost: Free before 11:00pm $20 there after - this event goes indoors after the summer season and back to regular function (Brazilian nights)


- Salsa Cruises - arranged by La Isla night club - this year it's the 10 year anniversary of this event !! - (Every May & Sep. to kick off summer and end summer. 24hour salsa cruise docking out on Friday night from Stockholm to Turkuu (Finland) and returns 24 hours later. This is arranged with one of the best and most luxurious cruise line companies in Europe, Silja Line/Tallink - check it out here http://www.tallinksilja.com/en/ On this Latin cruise the line up is the following.

- Salsa choreography competitions (1st place $2000 in cash)
- 3 live bands (salsa, timba [cuban salsa] and Latin)
- 4 DJ's
- Breakfast, lunch, dinner buffet
Plus lots more!

Cost: Prepay discount starts @ $10 when sharing a 4 bed C-cabin (below sea level). Of course, if you want a nicer more private cabin, it will cost more.


Now for some weekly (year round) Latin venues in the Stockholm area.

- Club Guantanamera - Bar (DJ) - Thur free entry

- Club The Crock - Bar (DJ) - Thur free entry

- La Habana - Restaurant (DJ) - Wed-Sun free entry

- Selam - (Concerts, DJ's, workshops, seminars, themed nights from cuban hiphop till Senegalese m'balax!) Cost: Varies from $10-$25 depending on the night.

- La Isla - Nightclub/restaurant (Stockholm's most popular Latin venue with rotating DJ's, all kinds of Latin dance competitions - salsa, samba, reggaeton, bachata etc. live bands, themed nights and soooo much more!) - Fridays & Saturdays Cost: Free b4 10:00pm, $20 thereafter on weekends, free on Wed & Thu.


- Hard Rock Café - Nightclub/restaurant (DJ) - Very popular venue in Stockholm with 2 rotating DJ's playing everything on the Latin music chart from salsa, merengue, bachata, cumbia, vallenato, reggaeton and more. Saturdays 10:00pm - 03:00am. Cost $20

- Happy Feet - (DJ) 6 hours of Non-stop salsa only. No bar provided, BYO. This is organized by the DjungleSalsa people and they promote with "Dance by dancers 4 dancers". Starts in Sept -after the summer period- Saturdays 7:00pm - 01:00am. Cost: $12

- Socials with local salsa dance schools (DJ) - Performances, guest DJ's, themed nights etc. Held every 2nd Thursday. Cost: $5-$15 depending on what's happening.

Ok, now we've had a look at a city that is very similar to Auckland population wise. However, I believe the actual Latin dance scene is bigger in Stockholm than Auckland. Why?? How did they do this? How can they have several big night clubs on the same nights, various salsa competitions running every year, etc? Where do all these people come from? Just like NZ, Sweden has by no means any traditional Latin culture what so ever... it is Scandinavia after all...

Well, I think I know why they have a bigger dance scene than Auckland. First of all, Stockholm has got quite a large population of immigrants from Latin America, therefore there is more contact with Latinos in general. Secondly, and I believe this is a mayor contribution to the growth of the Latin dance scene, I realized that most Latin venues had the DJ's playing salsa for the "dancers" and merengue, bachata, vallenato, cumbias, reggaeton, hip hop, RnB and Latin commercial music for the rest. This drew an immense crowd! Some venues would have 2 dance floors split up the music, 1 DJ playing for the dancers on one floor and a 2nd DJ playing for the rest on the other.

The result - people who did not go to the Latin venues for the salsa dancing would get to see the salsa dancers do their stuff. Of course it's eye catching for a new comer! Maybe they don't get inspired after seeing it once, but they come back for the "other room", and inevitable they will see the dancers again and again. A few months later, you would find some of them in salsa classes trying to learn! Slowly but SURELY the salsa dance scene started to grow - and keeps growing today!

At present, the approach here in Auckland is to the already existing Salsa/Latin dancers... this cannot grow... because there is only a "handful" of people dancing. You cannot expect your event/night to grow if you only promote and attract the same crowd over and over again. We have to think outside of the box!

Saturday night @ a Salsa/Latin night club in Stockholm, Sweden.

The approach to potentially grow the scene in Auckland could be as follows

Once again, this could be the "formula" to grow this scene! At the moment, it is completely separated here in Auckland, two different worlds - Result... stays the same year in year out...

Stockholm mixed the two worlds because the venues needed people to buy drinks at the bar... Now, they have enough salsa dancers buying drinks to support there own nights/events.

Everybody wins!!

PS. However, we need to keep people with glasses OFF the dance floor - I have been to venues where there is someone watching over the floor. Their job is to escort offenders off the floor to avoid accidents.
Final word from Latinissimo:

Let's give it a thought..., could we, should we, can we get some more exciting Latin/Salsa nights in Auckland? Or even an exciting summer with "new" Latin nights/events like the ones above? Would you get excited and attend any of the events/nightclubs above IF they were offered here in Auckland? Or would you only go to the 2 bars and one restaurant that are free of charge? One thing is for sure, Auckland has got the population to do it, Stockholm did it years ago... and look at what they can offer today!

When I came here I saw an incredible potential for Salsa/Latin nights, but it's not approached to its' potential. Some people may be thinking; "-Why don't YOU do it?" Well, it's not that easy for us, we are professional dancers, meaning we work with dance and everything around it from the minute we get up, until I literally fall asleep in front of the computer... researching. All our effort, creativity and time goes into creating new courses, coming up with new choreographies, dance training, physical training, listening to endless hours of music for potential choreographies, music mixing and research, research, research and much more... But I do have some ideas on what is needed to grow this scene. I have studied, researched and followed it for years.

So, what is stopping us??? Let's get the ball rolling!!! Let's not miss out!

Happy dancing! :-)

Latinissimo Dance Co.

Latinissimo Dance Co.