FAQ

That is the Big Question! At the start of the summer, this festival seemed a sure thing. Since the delta wave hit, and with the uncertainty it brought, we’ve been trying to determine whether we can still hold an event safely, and have been continuously gathering input from all our stakeholders. Absent an oracle to tell us what this winter will bring, we can only hope that the models projecting lower Covid rates and a tapering of the pandemic will bear out. We have decided to begin planning with this hope in mind, but may determine that we need to reverse course before tickets go on sale. Our partner venues, the Saratoga Hilton and City Center, have very generously extended their cancellation deadlines, allowing us to begin planning now without risking a total financial loss if we need to abort.

We’re going to be watching the trajectory of the pandemic over the coming weeks, and discussing with the key folks involved in putting on the festival. A large number of potential attendees and committee members will only be comfortable participating if the Covid outlook improves over the fall. If that doesn’t seem to be happening, and our staff aren’t comfortable going forward, we won’t.

New York State has recently published data on breakthrough infections, finding that they have occurred in about 1.2% of the fully vaccinated over 12 year of age. Hospitalizations among the vaccinated occurred at a rate of 8 out of 10,000. (For source data, see https://coronavirus.health.ny.gov/covid-19-breakthrough-data) Additionally, recent research points toward the virus shed by vaccinated individuals being less infectious than that of nonvaccinated people. Although this does not mean that vaccinated people cannot get sick from or spread Covid, when we factor in other safeguards such as rapid testing and mask policies, it does mean that the odds of an infected person both being present and causing illness in other attendees is extremely low. Some people are at higher risk for complications and severe illness from Covid than others, or have vulnerable folks in their orbit they need to protect, and so individual medical risk and risk tolerance will play an essential role in each person’s decision as to whether to attend.

The Saratoga City Center has updated to MERV-13 air filters in their HVAC units, which continually mix in fresh air. We’ll provide air turnover stats when we receive them from the venue.

There will be a $20 surcharge on tickets to fund the cost of rapid antigen testing (and to subsidize it for performers and volunteers) when you enter. The first time you enter the building, you’ll wait in a socially-distanced line to check in. In the process, you’ll have your vaccination status verified, be screened for new symptoms, and take a rapid test. After your negative results are confirmed, you’ll be able to get your wristband and move freely about the venue for the rest of the weekend. For cost-effectiveness, these will be over-the-counter test kits with the sole purpose of allowing you festival admission, and will not provide formal documentation of your results.

*Note: At this time, rapid home tests are in extremely short supply and the pricing is highly variable. We are hoping this improves before we need to purchase these tests in bulk, but it’s possible we may need to rethink this model if the logistical hurdle becomes too high.

If your test is inconclusive or positive, you will be brought to an isolation room for retesting and screening by a medical professional. You will also be further screened if you are exhibiting symptoms. The medical professional will determine whether additional evaluation or testing is needed before entry is permitted, or whether you will not be allowed to enter. At that professional’s discretion, you may be asked to leave the venue or isolate in your room until a further determination is made.

We plan to conduct temperature checks, and will exclude anyone with a temperature equal to or above 100° fahrenheit. The current CDC symptom list can be found here. Anyone experiencing symptoms on this list which are new or worsening may be denied entry. This does not include symptoms that are chronic, or related to other known causes or conditions. All questions about symptoms will be referred to our on-call medical professional. If you have a preexisting condition which includes any of these symptoms, we suggest you obtain a letter of documentation from your physician to bring along. It might also be a good idea to obtain a PCR Covid test (at your own expense) shortly before the festival so you can document a current negative result. While these actions will not guarantee you entry, they may assist our professional in determining that your symptoms are unrelated.

It’s a great idea to get tested before travel, and PCR testing adds an additional element of safety to the equation. We’ll still ask you to complete a rapid test at entry, however.

Good question. There are three sources we drew from in making these determinations:

1. We surveyed our attendees and volunteers, and got over 900 responses in total! It was clear that many of you wanted an in-person Flurry, but also needed some or all of these precautions to consider attending. Although some may find some of these requirements a turn-off, there simply wouldn’t have been enough people willing to participate without them.
2. The DFO Board has a Covid Policy committee, which laid out requirements for any in-person festival this year, and these were among them. Our Board has the final say on what the Flurry can and can’t do.
3. There can be no festival without the Flurry committee and its hundreds of volunteers. These exceptionally hard-working folks let us know what they needed to be willing to work on an in-person event, and their safety and comfort is paramount to us.

Thank you for your feedback! We read each of your many, many comments, and your input has helped to shape our choices. Here’s a link to a summary of the survey results.

We did, and you’re not alone. Our community – and that includes our organizers, attendees, and volunteers – are in many varied places when it comes to comfort with restarting dance events. We know this event will not feel safe to some of you, just as it will seem overly cautious to others. We can’t predict what the Covid situation will be in February, and we can’t guarantee that even with multiple layers of precautions there will be zero transmission at the event. There are enough people comfortable with these parameters, however, that we are hopeful we can hold a safe, inspiring Flurry for those who want to attend.

Workshops rooms will have socially-distanced seating, and attendees can pull chairs together for their “pods” if they wish. Dance rooms will be monitored with a counter at the door.

Nope. When we calculated the capacity for the dance spaces we are likely to use, and then brought it down to 50% capacity, we got to about 800. Not everybody is going to be dancing at the same time, or course, but including performers, staff, and volunteers we’re likely to have around 1,100 people in the building.

Thanks for asking – nope again. With high fixed costs, any smaller version of this festival is going to lose a bunch of money. But with 800 ticket sales we think the loss should be bearable, and we trust the Flurry community will pitch in to support us if we need help starting up for 2023.

This is a tough one. We don’t like doing anything that makes the festival less accessible, but we’re in a tight spot here. With capacity limits, balancing registration numbers to accommodate partial-festival attendees gets awfully complicated, and would likely shut out full-weekend attendees. Then there’s the matter of testing at entry, which is simpler if everyone’s there for the weekend and we can get lots of it done on Friday evening. It’s one of the unfortunate sacrifices we need to make to be able to hold a festival this year.

Again, to keep things simple, it’s going to be one ticket for full access. But there will be workshops running all day, and plenty for you to enjoy! If the ticket price is a hardship, consider applying to volunteer – you’d get in free.

Congrats on being one of the lucky ducks to snag a room in those first 3 minutes! We’ll open a portion of ticket sales a little early to those with Hilton rooms, to make sure you have the opportunity to get a ticket if you want one. Sorry, we can’t offer that for those with other accommodations.

Maybe you’d like to volunteer – we love volunteers, and they get in free! When volunteer signup opens, you’ll find it at https://www.flurryfestival.org/performers-volunteers/sign-up-to-volunteer. This will be a smaller-scale festival than usual and we won’t be needing quite as many volunteers. Some of the jobs may also look a little different this year.

Also consider becoming a member of the DanceFlurry Organization, which sponsors this festival. Members in good standing will have access to a short presale when tickets first go on sale. Join or renew your membership here.

And if we do sell out, we’ll start a waitlist, to facilitate transfers if someone can’t use a ticket they have.

All tickets will be sold in advance and require preregistration. We’d prefer that you upload an image of your vaccination card when you register, so your documentation can be included with your registration info. You’ll also have the option to show your card or an image of it at entry, or use NY’s Excelsior Pass if you have one. Either way, we recommend having your card handy just to be safe. Oh, and we’ll be needing to see ID when you check in, regardless.

We strongly encourage everyone who is eligible to obtain a booster. If the CDC has updated its definition of “fully vaccinated” adults to include boosters at the time of your ticket purchase, we will add that to the requirements.

We understand some countries are accepting this in lieu of vaccination, but this is not a widely accepted practice in the US. We will still need vaccination documentation for you to attend.

Genuine medical barriers to Covid vaccination are exceedingly rare, but do exist. We will accommodate such circumstances if at the time you purchase your ticket you submit a letter from your MD or DO, who is licensed and board certified in ENT, internal, family, or pediatric medicine, stating that you are not eligible for vaccination for medical reasons. We will also require you to bring proof of a negative PCR test taken within 72 hours of the event. Like everyone else, you will take a rapid test and be symptom-screened at the door.

Children under the age of five will not be admitted, as they are not currently eligible for vaccination. (In the unlikely event they become eligible in time to be fully vaccinated at the festival, we will revise this policy.) We will require that children aged 5-12 be fully vaccinated to enter. All tickets will be the same price, regardless of age. Keep in mind that programming this year will be significantly reduced, and there will be limited children’s/family programming. So this might not be the right year if the Flurry is usually a family outing for you.

We’ll be selling a streaming ticket which will allow you to watch some of the Flurry programming online. It won’t be fully interactive like last year’s virtual festival, but we’ll do our best to bring the Flurry experience to you online. Details to come.

We were thrilled to bring so many people together virtually, and had wonderful feedback from participants. The amount of labor that went into it, however, burnt out many of our staff and volunteers, and they’re just not ready to go down that road again. We considered a scaled-down weeknight version so folks could attend a few sessions spread out over time, but that didn’t sound appealing to many of our survey respondents. And with so many other options now available and a high degree of Zoom burnout all around, enthusiasm for this kind of event has generally waned. Ultimately, we felt enough people were ready to get back together in person that we’re going to direct our energy toward trying to make that happen. We will do our best to offer a good amount of the programming online, however, to include those who can’t be present this year, along with the newfound virtual Flurry community last year created.

We are unable to offer refunds if you choose not to attend; we will try, however, to facilitate a ticket transfer if there are people on a waitlist. If we turn you away at the door due to symptoms or a positive test and you would like your money back, we will refund your ticket. If you receive a positive PCR test result and are in isolation at the time of the festival, we will refund your ticket with proof of your result. If you cannot attend due to illness, we will wish you a safe and speedy recovery, and hope you will consider donating your ticket to help offset the losses caused by this year’s unique circumstances.

We will make available a waitlist of those who would like to be contacted if you have a ticket to sell, but you must arrange independently for payment. We will provide a form for the purchaser to provide the necessary information and documentation for us to transfer the registration. Immediately before and during the festival weekend we cannot guarantee we will be able to process ticket transfers immediately, but we’ll do our best.

All City Center employees are vaccinated, and as of November most of the Hilton staff are (and rule changes may require all to be by February). Both venues will require their employees to be masked, and will provide signage indicating masks are required in all public spaces. While we can’t guarantee anyone off the street won’t step into the Hilton, they have informed us that all their rooms are already booked by Flurry folks 🙂

Is anything set in stone these days? Circumstances will likely change, and we may need to adjust our policies accordingly. Perhaps we’ll get to a place where masking no longer seems necessary to most of our attendees, and we’ll reverse that policy or have a mask-optional dance room. If conditions improve enormously, we may determine it’s unnecessary to test everyone at the door. And if another highly-contagious variant emerges and we need to cancel the festival, or pivot to an entirely socially-distanced event, we’ll cross that bridge. We’ll be sure to spell everything out when it’s time to sell tickets. Until then, we’re just offering our best guesses as to how it’s going to go.

We believe it! We may or may not have a good answer for you, but send it along to info@flurryfestival.org and we’ll give it a try.