Melbourne Swing Festival - Day 3 and 4 (Sunday and Monday)

A big thank you to my friend to Fudz Qazi who let me use his amazing photographs of the event. 

SUNDAY

I have no idea how I made it out of bed on Sunday morning to be back in Richmond for my next door shift but I did somehow.

My shift mate Josh and me didn't only share our love for swing dancing but also the fact that both of us had enjoyed the after party very much. We took turns watching the work shops but also took it in turns to have little rests on the sofas :-).

My plan was to stay out somehow and go to the Sunday evening event 'Hepsters Hideout' at the Ormond Hall straight from my shift but as I was struggling to keep my eyes open towards the end of the day and all was wishing for was a bed and some sleep.

My wish must have been heard as all of a sudden one of Josh's friends showed up and offered him and my a ride to her house near the event. That meant just to get into a car and out, a trip under one hour without changing transports: AMAZING! I couldn't have been more grateful at that moment.

As well as that ride, we could take showers at the house and have naps in the guest rooms. After that we went for a nice meal before dancing :-)!!

When we were arriving at the venue I felt 80% awake for a bit and had some good dances in casual clothing. That didn't last too long and I just went home when that feeling had dropped back to around 40%!

MONDAY

I had the best sleep ever on Monday morning, took it easy in the day and made my way to the very last event for the weekend. Back to where I'd started! The 'Bake and Shake!' night took place in Brighton ;-). I didn't have to travel for 25 hours this time, it only took 1,5 hours to get there.


What a perfect last night. A lot of people had shown up early around 4.00pm to just socialise. 

There were board games and cards available, some home baked snacks and music in the background. It was 80s and 90s from what I remember and I didn't realise until I was asked to dance that you could dance lindy hop to all of the songs :-). The band 'The Furbelows' came on a bit later.

I had lovely chats and some nice dances with people I'd met over the last days. Everyone was relaxed, in a good mood and a bit sleepy. There was dinner provided and free tea and coffee. Again I noticed that this festival was not only about dancing, it was about socialising and having the chance to get to know the others. I really liked that.

The biggest moment of the night was the big thank you speech from Claudia Funder. There was a lot of applause, nice words for everyone but also the appeal for feedback to make the next festival even better.

The moment she said said that I was actually wondering how this could still be improved. The entire weekend was so well organised and thought through, down to the little details but I guess that's that type of attitude it needs to create something like that.

Kerryn got a lot of appreciation in front of everyone. Well deserved. From the chats we had and the time we spent during door shifts, I was already impressed by her as a person and her organisation skills.

Last but not least all volunteers were called to the dance floor for the volunteer dance, so I found myself dancing amongst all the other helpers.

What a great adventure to be part of the Melbourne Swing Festival 2015 the way I experienced it. It was my first big festival and I loved every minute of it. I'm glad I volunteered. A lot to be learnt that way, I met great people and got to hear some of their stories too.

On top of that I earned a free social pass to all the amazing venues! Being a traveller at the moment, I would have not been able to afford that!

Thanks Melbourne Swing Patrol!! What an amazing event :-)!!