PY Salsa Blog

The Winter Mambo Festival - New Years 06

I celebrated New Year in America – at The Winter Mambo Festival in Palm Springs, which was organised by Edie the Salsa Freak, and Bernard & Karen Martinez.

Palm Springs is an absolutely beautiful place to go in the winter – its right in the middle of the Desert on an Indian Reservation, so its main industry is the Casino, and it comes alive for parties and celebrations like New Years Eve. So I was definitely in the right place!

The crowd were nice and friendly – the age spread was slightly older than some of the festivals I’ve been to, and it had a kind of suburban feel to it; it was very laid back.

The event itself was very much a regional festival with a couple of International Stars, workshops of an extremely high standard, and, of course, Edie, who was incredible and taught for six hours a day.

And then there was the New Year’s Eve party, which was completely packed! It was delightful sharing ringing in the New Year with our American cousins, and being involved in what was, all in all, a very enjoyable event.