Covid Safety Update 9/8/21 - under constant review

Below is the current list of the systems we think we will have in place during the festathon. However, please note that these may be subject to change as the situation changes during July and August.

Disclaimer

In the event that you are unable to attend (including receiving a positive test at the event), while we will endeavour to refund your entrance fee (see below), we will not accept any liability for your accommodation or other incurred costs.

We are doing our best to find a system which reduces the risk of spreading Covid, but also enables us to dance together. This is not straight-forward because whatever system we introduce, someone objects. We are therefore trying to reach a compromise where sufficient of you accept for us to be able to afford to run. So, as you read the systems below, please decide if your personal objections are more important to you than your dancing.

Clearly, we don't want to put finance before safety, but we are just two people who are risking losing many thousands of pounds of our personal money on your behalf. Please try and be supportive and constructive if you wish the event to go ahead.

Ultimately, no system we design can guarantee that everyone will be 100% without risk of catching Covid, which is why it is up to you to help mitigate the risk by being part of the solution not the problem. If you have any suspicion at all that you may have Covid at the time of the event, please do not attend.

For those who are able to attend the event, please be aware that, like everyone else, we cannot guarantee that you won't catch Covid and that by attending, you are accepting that risk.

As with all private functions, we retain the right to refuse entry if we deem it necessary - although of course we hope to be able to let everyone in!!

Refunds

You will have noticed that this year, the festathon has a reduced scope. We have been forced to keep the financial risk low as people's attendance is not as guaranteed as a normal year.

If you withdraw from the festathon for Covid related reasons before it opens on August 20th 2021, we will of course endeavour to refund you in full if at all possible.

However, please note that once the festathon is running, we cannot guarantee to refund your full fee as by opening the festathon, we are committing ourselves to paying for the venue. Whether we can offer a full refund will depend on numbers attending and this continues to fluctuate as you may imagine. We hope you will understand this point and bear with us if we can only give a partial refund. We are entirely non-profit making.

Attendance

Please do not attend the event if, on the day of the festathon you have any of the recognised Covid symptoms as listed on the NHS Covid Pages.

If you receive a positive test (PCR or Rapid Antigen) in the days leading up to the event, please do not attend unless you have since received a negative PCR test or surpassed an appropriate period of self-isolation.

If you feel unable to meet the conditions of entry listed below (e.g. you object to providing a Covid passport), we are sorry that you feel that way. However, please do not turn up in the hope of "persuading your way in". Our staff on the door are all volunteers and the Town Hall staff are there because they have a job to do. If anyone chooses to abuse them, we will refuse entry to that person. We all need to work together to enable events such as ours to run.

Entry

In consideration of everyone's safety, we will be using the NHS Covid Pass (or national equivalent).

More detailed instructions are available on our Entry Requirements page.

• All participants will need to be demonstrate at least one of the following:
• They have natural immunity due to having had Covid.
• They have been double vaccinated.
• They have had a recent negative PCR test.
• They have had a recent negative Rapid Antigen (lateral flow) test.
• If you have installed the NHS app (not the NHS Covid app) on your phone and registered using you NHS number, then your immunity status will be shown on there. If you then register any Covid test results via the NHS system, they too will be logged on the app.
• We feel it provides an added layer of reassurance if even the fully vaccinated carry out a lateral flow test at some point just before attending the event - ideally, on the day of the event or the night before. They are available for free. We will also try and have some available at the event. If you feel able to do this - for your own peace of mind as much as anything - then this would be wonderful. However, please note that we feel unable to enforce this as a condition of entry. It is left to you to decide if this is for you or not.
• If you haven't had either dose of a vaccine nor had Covid, you will need a recent negative test.
• If you don't have both vaccines and have used a lateral flow test then once you create a "passport" to show us, this is valid for two days. If you are here for the full weekend you will therefore need to do another test on Sunday and show us your updated passport.
• Updated Info Each of the four UK nations has a slightly different system for providing a Covid Pass. More details on our Entry Requirements page. If you are coming from outside the UK or Ireland, please contact us in advance.

The venue

The main ballroom at the town hall is a large high space. It has an inductive airflow system and at the numbers of dancers we expect, it should be bringing in around 25 litres of fresh air per person per second. We we will also use the following procedures to reduce any risks as much as we can.

• We will keep doors open wherever possible.
• We will use several large fans to keep as much airflow as possible.
• Where we usually "shrink" the dance floor with the way we arrange the tables and chairs in order to keep a proper milonga atmosphere, we will do the opposite and keep the floor larger to allow people to dance with a bit more space between the couples.
• We will limit the number of people at the event if necessary to avoid over-crowding.
• Those who have been before will remember the steamy fog which develops in the Pillar Room full of dancers on a hot day. This is due to the lack of ventilation. We will not be running any dancing in the Pillar Room. Don't panic! The bar will be open!

Masks and dancing

We will leave it up to individuals as to whether they choose to dance in a mask. Our own feeling is that this is likely to be rather hot in an indoor setting, but we will have to wait and see. Please be respectful of each other's choices in this regard and don't be offended if they do not wish to dance with you either because you are wearing a mask or are not wearing one or they do or do not wish to.

There may be some people who choose not to change partners throughout the whole weekend and we will all need to be tolerant of their wishes. We have some ideas about how we can make it easier to avoid confusion or embarrassment over this issue.

As dancers, we will all have chosen to take the risk of dancing together and attending a mask-optional event. This is not the case for the Town Hall staff who are there because it is their job. We will therefore be asking that all participants wear masks to enter and leave the building and at any time when not in the main ballroom. We know that they are unlikely to be compulsory by that date, but we feel we have a duty towards the staff who are not specifically choosing to take the risk.

Booking Update 24/6/21

Important! As with the original date, we are still reliant on numbers of bookings to be able to afford the financial risk of going ahead, so we would ask that if you are hoping to book and have not yet done so, you please book as soon as possible. If you have had an email from us regarding your original booking but have not yet replied, please do so.

If we are forced to cancel the event, we will aim to refund all payments.

Balancing numbers Update 24/6/21

Ideally, people will still book in leader/follower pairs to help keep the numbers as balanced as possible.

However, we now think we have all reached the point where we would rather have some dancing than guarantee 100% non-stop dancing, so we will allow a small surplus of followers if necessary.

Leaders - please book to be certain of a place.

Followers - please book with a leader if you can, but if you definitely can't, please book anyway.