Contra Weekend Heatmap

August 1st, 2014
contra, tech
I made another heatmap: dance weekends. I took the data from the weekend and festival survey I ran a few months ago, went over it again to pull down a few more band names that have been posted in the interim, and collected locations while I was at it. Then I put them all on a map:


(interactive zoomable version)

Looking at this, there's a giant red blob in the Northeast, but in 2012 I wrote:

Dance weekends are not a major part of contra dance culture in the northeast, but seem to be much more central elsewhere.
What's going on?

Some of it is that the Northeast weekends/festivals aren't branded as "dance weekends": Pinewoods, the Flurry, the Snowball, the Dawn Dance, DEFFA. Some of it is that the weekends that do exist aren't put on by the local dances in a 1-1 relationship: in much of the country the area dance organization runs a weekly/monthly dance and organizes a yearly weekend, but in the Northeast they tend to be separately organized. What else? Or is my impression about the significance of weekend culture just wrong?

Referenced in:

Comment via: google plus, facebook, substack

Recent posts on blogs I like:

Americans: call your senators today to stop the Save Our Bacon Act

The Farm Bill currently under consideration by the U.S.

via Thing of Things May 7, 2026

Fiddle Practice

For a while I wasn't learning how to play violin very well because whenever it was time to practice I didn't want to. I didn't really like practicing, because (1) it's boring, (2) I have better things to do, and (3) actually I guess there …

via Anna Wise's Blog Posts May 3, 2026

New Pony

I have a new pony. I got her from the Goodwill. Her name is "Rainbow" and her nickname is "Sparkles". We went the usual way, in the pink stroller. We went downstairs and I played with some of the toys. I found the pony in the toy area. …

via Nora Wise's Blog Posts May 3, 2026

more     (via openring)