Grand Bal de l'Europe - Gennetines - Practical Guide

This is my practical guide based on 10 days at the 2018 event mainly aimed at the UK based/English speaking dancers.

Getting there

According to Google Maps, it's a 336 miles/5 hours 8 minutes drive from the ferry port at Caen. That's not as bad as you might think. French roads are straighter, less crowded and better maintained than UK roads. Driving in France is quite pleasant. Also, on the autoroutes, you are allowed to drive at 130km/hour  (about 81mph) most of the way. If you avoid tolls, it takes another hour and the roads are similarly good, straight and uncongested. 

Food

Unless you plan to drive in search of food/restaurants, you should plan to eat on site. Some food traders do attend but their hours are short - I never even saw them. The festival's own catering is OK and in some ways very flexible. For a fixed price, you can mix and match. So, if EG you want lots of cheese but no sweet course, you can. At the checkout they check what you've got and give "change" in the form of tokens for a coffee or an ice cream. If you've taken too much, you have to put an item back!

The buvette (bar) sells some snack items on a more flexible schedule.

The nearest (small) shop is in is in Gennetines village itself which is 2.5 miles away. You'll probably prefer to drive to the outskirts of Moulins where you'll find huge supermarkets and even a Burger King.

The Event/Programme

This is primarily a dance festival. there are lots of Bals (dances), and dance workshops. Do not expect concerts, morris dancers or other "display" dances. It's participatory dance - oodles of it. From around 2100-0300, there are 7 dancefloors in action and they're really close together so there's no need to plan and commit to a venue.

Two of the dance-floors. Some are even closer together than this

 The workshops happen in the daytime and after 0300, the number of active floors goes down to two for the "Boeff" which is where anyone who wants to can play their instrument and anyone can dance.

A "boeuf" (late night session)

A lot of the Bals are Balfolk but a wide variety of other dance forms are offered. In my experience (as a man) there is no difficulty in getting competent and sometimes brilliant partners. You just ask and because it's a dancer's festival, they say yes and they know what they are doing.

Language

I walked through the car park one day counting number plates. Around 90% of the cars are from France and when you take into account some Swiss and Belgians, the first language really is French. However, some of the workshops are offered in French and English.

Meeting Friends

• Don't arrange to meet a friend on a particular dance-floor. Some of them are too big, crowded  and dark for this to work reliably
• However, each marquee has a large number outside one of the doors (EG: "4"). Arranging to meet by "the number 4 on marquee 4" works better
• Mobile coverage is variable and a lot of people are trying to use it. Use old-fashioned SMS/text rather than phone, Facebook or Messenger.

Other Points

Fundamentally, this festival works. Nothing seems to go wrong - not even the showers - and there are lots of those. If you dance the night away, you will not be woken at noon by someone playing a bombarde in the next tent. That's because the "rules" say you should be quiet on the campsite - because there is always someone trying to sleep.