Event details

2025 edition

I had an incredible time at Swingvester! This is easily the best venue I have ever seen for an event. The city of Wels is very comfortable and convenient, with everything located within easy walking distance. There are also plenty of great food options nearby. The venue was very comfortable with a great bar and plenty of chairs placed around the dance floor to sit and relax. Having multiple rooms with different music styles was fantastic. I particularly loved the late-night room with the groovy music! The technical aspects were spot on: the air conditioning was awesome and the floor quality was excellent. The MC, TJ, absolutely killed it—bringing great energy and clarity to the event. I have attended for the last two years and will probably be back every year. This is truly a top-tier experience.

2025 edition

A much bigger event than I anticipated but still very enjoyable. The venue is stunning with great floors and during social dancing multiple rooms were always open, some with themes, and others playing the same music as the main floor but providing more space. I found the workshops very valuable and liked being within the same group of 40ish dancers in my level for all workshops. The workshops for level 3 (pointed novice) were well paced with valuable content and a variety of topics covered by the different teachers. I heard from friends this wasn’t the same at all levels with too many people in level 2 (newcomer/unpointed novice) workshops and repetitive content in level 4 (pointed intermediate). The social dancing was fantastic and I appreciate that the finish times were published and stuck to, rather than the not knowing if there was 1 more song or 1 hour more. It’s a very large event and so would recommend going with friends as it can feel lonely if you don’t know many people. NYE as the first night needed some kind of ice breaker or mixer class as everyone just stuck with people they already knew, so it was challenging coming by myself and trying to find people I recognised to spend time with. Another issue for me was the inaccessibility of free water bottle refills. You had to load a minimum of €25 onto a bar card to be able to access water which IMO is a health and safety concern. As the event is over the new years period, plus most shops and some restaurants close on Sundays, some pre-planning was required for food but Wels is very walkable with many restaurants within 10 mins walk of the venue. Staying at the Ibis worked well with a supermarket across the road and 10 minute walk to the venue - just remember your warm clothes as it was snowy and down to -10C. I would recommend the event, with those caveats in place.

2025 edition

The event was a bit crowded, and the split into A and B groups due to this was communicated rather late. Had we known earlier, we might have opted for a party pass only, since we didn’t get to see all the teachers we wanted. Don’t count on making auditions, as very few spots are left in higher levels. From a personal perspective, I found the dinner less satisfying given the price, but there are plenty of excellent restaurants nearby as alternative options. The event was very competition-focused, with most of saturday dedicated to competitions and talks. The €25 bar card required to get drinking water felt steep; at other events I’ve attended, water was provided for free. Communication about water refills (not allowed in the bathrooms) came across as aggressive and somewhat off-putting. Overall, it was an expensive and crowded event, though the floors, location and music were fantastic.

2025 edition

Best way to spend New Years ever!! Honestly, the ambiance was amazing, offering enough space and various rooms with different music genres to dance to, as well as plenty of places to sit or lounge. The music was so good it was impossible to leave and get enough sleep! Overall level of dancers was intermediate-advanced, and everyone friendly. I cannot wait to be back :)

2025 edition

Considering it was such a large event, it still felt really cozy! I especially appreciated the many seating groups spaced around the dancefloors. Temperature and crowdedness was a bit difficult to answer since there were at peak times four floors (which was great, overall) and the main one was usually quite crowded and almost chill because of the AC, while another one got quite hot and damp and a third one was neither crowded nor too hot. Overall it's a fun event, I really enjoyed the spacing of the workshops. In terms of organisation, there were some hiccups with the 3 minute Privates and one of the Routines. The comps went smoothly overall, which is quite a feat considering how big they were. I will definitely consider going again :)