Blackpool's Dance Festival: A Century of Glamour, Grit, and Grooves

Blackpool, a seaside town in Lancashire, England, is home to one of the world’s most famous dance festivals: the Blackpool Dance Festival. This event began in 1920 and has grown into a major international competition, attracting dancers from all over the globe. The festival takes place in the grand Empress Ballroom, a beautiful and historic venue that adds to the excitement. This year’s festival is especially important because it marks the 100th anniversary of the event. With over 9,000 entries, nearly double the number from last year, the festival will feature hundreds of hours of dancing over 13 days.

The history of the Blackpool Dance Festival is being preserved by the Showtown Museum, where Tom Carter works as the heritage officer. He is responsible for looking after a huge collection of items related to the festival, including photographs, newspaper clippings, and old programs. Many of the photographs are in black and white and show dancers in large ballrooms, while some are in faded color. There are also trophies, such as one for the 'Best Sequence Dance,' which was awarded to dancers who created new and innovative routines. One of these dances was called the 'crush trot,' designed for crowded dance floors where there wasn’t much space to move. Tom finds working with these historical items both thrilling and a bit intimidating because of their importance.

Natalie Hayes, the festival’s organizer, says the archive is very special and contains items she didn’t even know existed. She believes it’s incredible that such a significant international event takes place in a small seaside town like Blackpool. For two weeks, the town is transformed as dancers and fans from around the world arrive to take part in the festivities. Tom enjoys exploring the archive and noticing how some things have changed over the years, while others have stayed the same. For example, he found an old news article from 1876 about people rollerskating on the promenade, which was considered a nuisance at the time. This made him realize that some things never change. The Blackpool Dance Festival is a key part of the town’s history, and the museum continues to uncover new stories and secrets from its past.