The bigger, the better. Is it true?

Since Rovinj Sensual days dissapeared there is no contest around who’s the biggest festival in the yard. I already attended this one last year but this is the first that Rovinj is not there so I expected a huge increase in body count. This is the only venue in the world I’ve attended that can handle easily four or five thousand people but according to their own social media, this year an astounding 7000 dancers gathered in Katowice, Poland to enjoy this festival. But with so many people, questions start to pop up… can it handle so many people? Even if it can, can anyone enjoy a festival with so many stimuli?

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My name is César and this is my dance advisor review of the Bachaturo 2024 festival.

My take on the festival

To know what are the scoring criteria for a festival and what’s my particular take when I go to festivals, click here.

Bachaturo is really unmeasurable. Rovinj was a whole city for dancing and I think it was only around 5000 people. This year there were going to be 7000 bachateros under the same roof… Poland is cheap and all the eastern countries usually attend these festivals, making this a exotic but also attended by the best dancers around, so it’s a must stop for any «real bachatero».

In 2023 I made this trip and even though it was very enjoyable, my whole experience was deterred because… dude, it’s too many people! If you have not been here, I’m telling you from the get-go, it’s going to be the biggest gathering of dancers you’ve ever seen. I knew everyone was going to be there, so it was quite frustrating to get there in 2023 the first night and not finding a single of your favorite dancers in the whole night, or getting to the zone where it’s very packed looking for one of them but then not be able to enjoy because it’s too crowded.

In 2024 i decided to change my mindset. Instead of looking for an outcome, dancing with «my favorites and friends», I chose the outcome to come to me and enjoy whatever the night throws at me. I decided to stay at the perimeter of the dancefloor, where there’s plenty of space to dance and dancers coming in or out need to go through these positions to get out of the «jam zone», and from here finding people to dance with in the area. This change only switched completely my feeling over this festival. I really had a blast every night, with new discoveries and old friendships reignited every day. I think it also helps that I am a well known social dancer so followers on the way in or out of the jam zone saw me and stayed there to dance with me, so I don’t know if this would work for everyone…

Djs & Lineup

Workshops

Party Pass, let’s goooo!!! Is there a lineup for this festival??

DJs

These were the 4 DJs of the event and in my opinion is missing some of the hot and new names to make it the best DJ lineup. Dj Dimensions is a must and, for my taste, DJ Pablo should be here as well to close the parties. Dj Khalid is a really good DJ… of the past, feels he got stuck there, as the sets he plays feel all the same. And Dj Gregory I guess is the local talent but I didn’t like it much either.

8/10

Location

The location is in Katowice, it’s not an easy place to get to from Spain, usually need to go to Barcelona and go on a day with a direct flight or fly to Krawow and there’s a bus that takes you there in about 1 hour. Check the bus on Flixbus.

I will also include in the location the fact that the venue doesnt have a close hotel. There is a small hotel there and every other hotel/apartment is at least 10 min walking away, which is not ideal. Once there, the city itself is not a turistic place. If you plan to go and its your first time in poland, i recommend travelling to krakow, spend 3 days to check the beautiful city, the Salt Mines and a visit to Auschwitz.

7/10

Venue

This is the best venue there is to celebrate a dance festival with more than 1000 people. It’s a huge stadium with tall rooms and the floor is ok, it’s not the best but it’s good enough, you are not stuck dancing on it. With the fuego shoes it was smooth sailing the whole night.

The first time you get into the big room of bachata, you will stand in awe of the magnitude of the place and the good settings over there.

It is a HUGE venue, the main room will host the 7000 people with ease, but usually the salsa and kizomba room are also available, albeit they are much smaller, the climatization, the sound and the lights all were spot on.

10/10

Vibes

This is the hardest part to evaluate and I feel like it would be different for everyone specially in this huge event, as a follower won’t have the same experience as me(felt like there were a lot more followers). I also enjoy role rotating so I danced a lot with leaders I met there for the first time so I basically never stopped(for a change, lol). Overall, I feel like the organization loses control over the vibes of their event when it’s such a huge festival but nonetheless, a lot of the attendants were on point with the right attitude but i feel like some of the best dancers were totally overwhelmed and they were feeling some dissapointment because they went with the same mindset i went the year before, so they were not enjoying as much. Djs some time also killed the mood with the wrong set of music.

8/10

Organization

From the standpoint of just another attendant, this festival looks just ok. I guess that running such a massive event is not easy and probably that’s why… this festival DO NOT have official afternoon parties or afterparties… And this for me is a huge mistake on their part. Fortunately, people like Dani «BachataLovesMe» organized speakers for us to have an unofficial afternoon party every day. But this is not acceptable for me in 2024, so the score goes down because of it.

7/10

Price

Party pass for 4 days of party was 60€, basically a steal. Nothing else to say. Full pass also seems worth it, as the lineup was quite good, but basically the best teachers were from Madrid so nothing special for us.

10/10

Dance level

I will write soon an article about how does it feel to dance over different countries but Bachaturo is just amazing. Its not only the dance level, is also how present people are when dancing with you. Compared to Madrid, this connection and presence in the dance, blows my mind. The best dancers of Europe were there but also the local people and Ukrainian dancers were just amazing.

10/10

Conclusion

The best level of Europe and the best venue for a big festival… This is one of the must stop of the year for bachateros. Is the Mecca of Bachata. It is that good. It is not perfect by any means, mainly needs to work on the DJs and the afternoon parties but you need to visit once. It is a huge festival so either you adapt or you wont like it either. A lot of great dancers usually prefer smaller festivals because you don’t get overwhelmed by so many people and stimuli and the vibe usually is cozier and better. It’s like choosing between having a coffee between your 3 best friends with an intimate conversation of go have the same coffe but with 25 people. Both plans could be great but maybe you are not in the mood for one of them. If you enjoy big festivals, you need to go to this one, though.

My advice if you seek one, is that you go with no expectations. Don’t think that you are going to dance with Gero(artist) or your favorite social dancer that you know of previous events. If you really wanna do that you probably will need to send them a DM to schedule a place and time to meet. Otherwise, just enjoy whatever comes through you. The level is crazy, you will have a good dance 95% of the time so just enjoy the night and see you in the afterparty!!

The final score for this festival is 9/10.

This has been the review for Bachaturo 2024, if you were there and think i missed on something or you are curious about going next year, feel free to leave me a comment in the post or my social media.

Until next time, thanks for reading,

César.