Bristol

My time in Bristol was too short. In a city with so much personality I wanted more time to discover the hidden gems of the city, to get to know more people and, I cannot hide it, to observe the growth of tango.
There are a few bi-monthly and monthly milongas. The monthly milongas attract people from more distant places and are worth going. In Tango Alchemy's milonga you may struggle to find a tango being played but it's good if you're a Nuevo Tango fan. The milonga in Pucklechurch is quite nice and in a fantastic setting. Jocelyne lends all her flair and passion to create a peculiar spirit to it. The music is good (although you shouldn't expect structured tandas) and the level of dancing is possibly the best in the region. The weekly milongas have less external visit and therefore the level of dancing is lower. The Dance Café can get quite crowded and nice but the level of expertise is quite inconsistent. As for the Tango West milongas, they have good dancers but the spirit is a bit muffled by the sometimes tedious music and by the man that shouts people around every change of track.
Bristol has got the right ingredients to be a centre of excellence in the British Tango scene. It's a reasonably sized city, it has a history of great music and arts scene and it is the central point in the Southwest. Is not uncommon to see people from Cheltenham, Bath, Exeter, Wales, Southampton, London or Oxford coming to dance in Bristol. Such a variety of dancers and schools create an influx of techniques, styles and practise that are essential for the increase in numbers of skilled dancers. But, nearing the celebration of 10 years of Tango, why is Bristol still waiting to boom? Shouldn't it have boomed already?
Some people over there will not like to read this but the problem in Bristol is that different parties do not collaborate with each other. I am not going into who is right and who is wrong because I don't believe that nobody holds the truth. What I am saying is that it will be difficult for Bristol to get out of the quicksand if people don't stick together.