The Flurry Festival is one of the largest traditional dance and music festivals in North America. It takes place over President’s Weekend in February in Saratoga Springs, NY, and typically draws roughly 4,500 attendees and 400 performers.
The 2024 Flurry will take place Feburary 16-18, 2024, and will feature swing, blues, contra, square dancing, Cajun, Zydeco, English country, Balkan, Scandinavian, Latin, tango, fusion, international, balfolk, instrument workshops, family programming, jams, storytelling, group singing, concerts and more to be announced!
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- Volunteer Application Opens Mid-December
WHEN:
February 16-18, 2024
WHERE:
Flurry Headquarters: Saratoga Springs City Center / Hilton Hotel, 522 Broadway, Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
Other venues may include: Saratoga Music Hall, Temple Sinai, Parting Glass Pub, and other nearby locations.
TYPES OF EVENTS:
Dances and Workshops —such as Contra, Swing, Latin, English Country, Squares, Vintage, Clogging, Hip-Hop, Cajun, Zydeco, Irish, Scandinavian, Middle Eastern, Asian, European, American and International Folk, Yoga and Body Movement, and more! Beginner to experienced sessions. Make Music and Sing— in sessions such as Irish, Quebecois, Southern Old-Time, African, Scandinavian, Adirondack, Gospel & Community Singalongs, Folk, Fiddle, Guitar, Banjo, Flute, Harmonica, Ukulele, Voice and more!
The Flurry Festival is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.
FESTIVAL PLANNING COMMITTEE
Visit our planning committee page at https://www.flurryfestival.org/planning-committee/.
A volunteer committee of roughly 30 individuals work with Festival Directors and are committed to producing a welcoming event of traditional dance, music, instruction and entertainment for all ages.
Our philosophy: to present a high-quality, eclectic, feel-good festival of traditional social dance and music. The Flurry serves as a showcase for the wealth of talented dance leaders and musicians from our area and beyond, as well as a venue to further develop their skills in a festival atmosphere.
We are committed to our local talent. This is the backbone of our dance community. We fill many session slots with local and regional performers but also bring in a limited number of “special guest” performers from outside of our region. The Festival is committed to encouraging and supporting our performers as much as we can within the limits of our human resources and budget. The festival happens because hundreds of people volunteer their time to make it work. We cannot afford to pay performers what we think their services are worth, but we are working toward that goal.
Open Committee Positions: There are currently no open committee positions, but we are always interested in volunteers who’d like to contribute throughout the year. If interested, please contact our Flurry Admin Director.
WE’RE SPONSORED BY THE DANCEFLURRY ORGANIZATION
The DanceFlurry Organization (originally the Hudson-Mohawk Traditional Dances, Inc.) is a non-profit organization dedicated to connecting and inspiring people through traditional music and dance. The DanceFlurry Organization is a 501(C)(3)tax-exempt organization, and are registered with the Charities Bureau of the State of New York Office of the Attorney General. Check the DanceFlurry Organization website for information about local dances, support, membership and Adirondack Dance Weekend. You can help by becoming a sponsor, volunteer, or a member of the DanceFlurry Organization, and by buying the music and books at the performers’ sales table at the Festival.
FESTIVAL HISTORY
It was pure luck that the Dance Flurry Festival (now called “The Flurry”) came into being.
In 1987, Nancy Gretta and Paul Rosenberg were car-pooling to the Brattleboro, Vermont, Labor Day Dawn Dance. As they drove, they reminisced about how wonderful the one and only Old Songs Winter Dance Fest had been. In the Autumn of 1986, the 2nd annual Winter Dance Fest was in the planning stages when the director stepped down, and Nancy had just learned that the 1988 festival was also canceled. She asked Paul (partially in jest) if he would organize a replacement festival.
The wheels began to spin, and Paul thought a smaller, one-day winter dance festival could be a logical extension of the Schenectady contra dance series, which he had developed earlier in 1987. This series was (and its successors still are) unique because it was totally dedicated to the showcasing and development of callers and musicians from within the Capital District of New York State.
The Hudson-Mohawk Country Dancers (later known as Hudson-Mohawk Traditional Dances, Inc., and now as the DanceFlurry Organization) was formed as a not-for-profit chapter of the Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS) around 1987, which allowed for grants and the ability to obtain liability insurance.
The first February Dance Flurry was a one-day festival held at the Westmere Elementary School in Guilderland, NY, on February 13, 1988. Over 300 dancers attended a highly successful event, staffed entirely by 38 local and regional performers, including Jay Ungar, Molly Mason, George Wilson, Selma Kaplan, Pat Rust, Mary Cay Brass, Van Kaynor, and the St. Regis String Band.
The Festival evolved to become a three-day extravaganza, which was held for several years at the Farnsworth Middle School in Guilderland. In 1994, just two-and-a-half weeks before the Flurry, very cold weather burst water pipes in the school’s gymnasium and ruined the floor. The Flurry organizers scrambled to find an alternative venue, and managed to cobble together a festival held at several venues in the city of Saratoga Springs. The location was a perfect match, and Saratoga Springs has been the home of the Flurry, ever since, and the attendance — including over 400 performers and 300 Flurry staff and volunteers — has climbed to over 5,000.
Around 2010, the “Dance Flurry” festival name was changed to reflect both dance and non-dance events (an often said reply to being asked about attending the “Dance Flurry” was: “Oh, I don’t go, because I don’t dance”). And so, “The Flurry – A Festival of Traditional Dancing and Music,” became the proper name and motto, known now as “The Flurry.” The organization retained the “DanceFlurry” name and hosts The Flurry, as well as a fall Adirondack dance weekend, and an assortment of dances throughout the year.
In 2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic made holding an in-person event impossible, the Flurry pivoted to the fully-virtual event Dancing in the Cloud, with over 150 interactive sessions taking place over Zoom. In 2023, the Flurry emerged from its pandemic hiatus to produce a scaled back festival Winter Roots, and planned a Spring Bloom companion which needed to be cancelled due to a large financial loss. Fortunately, the Flurry community banded together to support an enormous fundraiser, making the Flurry whole and allowing it to return to its full glory in 2024.