Oh, that, now, sure. Many of the local milongas now require everyone to be vaccinated and have received a booster shot. There's also an online form for reporting your status, which is now shared by several milongas to make things easier. Of course, you need to provide proof of vaccination. But once on the list, you're good to go at all of those venues.
Depends on the size of the event. One of our milongas was in a village hall, maybe 40-50 attendees. The organiser/host puts out some tables and chairs early. A DJ is booked. The same person greets at the door and takes payment. If there's insufficient tables/chairs when you arrive, you go and get your own. Everyone who's left at the end helps clear up. Apparently we could all pay extra to have tables/chairs put out and cleared away + room cleaned.
Aargh, talc. Get some proper dance floor powder (but not TOO much) if it's really needed. We recently had a dance lesson after the room had been used for a wake. Far too much drink spilt on the floor and they hadn't cleaned it thoroughly. Took ages to clean shoes afterwards. Apparently they got the industrial floor cleaner out after complaints.
Yes, it's that time to talk whilst missing cabeceo and consequent tandas.
How much was attendance? for €400 in takings you get a room, a few chairs and tables, my friend's playlists from her laptop, the fancy tablecloths, battery operated "candles", tips for the bar staff and about €50 left over for the slush fund.
Pre-pandemic that would have been €6-€8 (age variations, pre-booked). Pretty much as you describe. I believe prices have now gone up.
What? It's a village in the sticks! You need a car to get there and back home.
Yes, that's my definition of "host" as well.
Yes, tango people seem obsessed with dimly lit environments . . . then have the gall to grumble about how the cabeceo doesn't work. One place where I like to dance is always bright, and I greatly prefer that, as it makes invitations much simpler.
Yes that’s why the organisers tip the bar, if there is one, since they make next to nothing on sales.
Yes. We were usually five:
Powder on the floor is just generally scary. Fortunately, most events here ban it completely, in all of its forms. A guy I know (someone who decided to call himself a "teacher" after four or five years of dance lessons) actually got blacklisted at one event, at least, for ignoring a powder ban.
.
Having worked the bar at many tango events, both weekly milongas and festivals: Tango people are poor tippers. Yet there's little or no money in tango to truly pay the bartender, who often is using the event's liquor permit but their own bar stock ("Hi, that was me!"). So, tips – call them what you like – are essential if you want bar service. A dance studio that has a dancer who tends bar isn't the same world as a full-time bar that happens to host tango some nights.
We usually run things in a team of 6 or so. Rotating the jobs and relieving the door person. The 3 who set up don’t usually do the clean up but it’s flexible.
And I know you aren't joking! Where we ran our práctica, it got very hot in summer (upper-story loft in a built-up urban heat island), so there was an air conditioner. The owner turned it on for evening milongas that made enough money, but if we wanted to use it for our práctica on a warm afternoon, we had to pay extra rent.
I found five workable, six preferable. But we didn't rotate roles . . . the organizer was very strict about who could handle money, so the door float and bar float were trusted to one person each. The DJ was a semi-pro, and never stepped away from their expensive sound equipment. With the organizer being the boss, that was four positions totally locked down. So, by default, the fifth person (host) was also locked down.