To All Tangueros (y Tangueras): On behalf of The Tango Society of Boston I would like to extend my hearful thanks and appreciation to everyone who helped make the first Boston Tango Festival a tremendous success. As we were planning our first experience, we were not sure what to expect. The outcome was above and behond our expectations.
The festival started on June 23 as Mayor Thomas M. Mennino poclaimed "Tango Day" in the City of Boston. What followed were 3 days filled with over 50 classes to choose from. The evenings were filled with a milonga with performances by local instructors and music by our own tango Diva, a milonga/salsa cruise, an extravagant milonga/show with the masters and it all ended with a traditional Argentinean asado (cookout) and closing milonga. We were graced with the participation of Armando Orzuza and Daniela Arcuri, Miriam Larici and Hugo Patyn, Hector Falcon and Omar Vega. Each of them brought their own outstanding teaching style and talent. How lucky we were to have them all under the same roof!!! No festival could ever be complete without the cooperation and participation of our local talent: Hillary Ross, Hsueh-Tze Lee, Shahrukh Merchant, Nancy Murphy and Ron Gursky. Our local tango Diva, Katie Viqueira provided the opening show. Live music was also provided by Pablo Aslan, Tito Castro and Octavio Brunetti. We had over 400 participants, half of whom were from out of town and as far away as Canada (Ontario & Quebec), Florida, California (San Francisco, L.A. & San Diego), Argentina, New York and the Tri-state area, Texas, etc. as well as our friends from Boston and the New England area. Nothing could have been possible without the hard work of all the volunteers who spent hours working prior and during the festival. From simple things such as stuffing envelopes to designing our website, designing our logo, setting up, hosting our guests, etc. Thanks also to the board members for their help and support. The positive energy and friendliness was felt by everyone throughtout the festival and the positive comments and responses by the participants made it worth all the hard work that went into planning the festival. We have started planning our second Festival next year so mark your calendars, June 15-19, 2005. We hope to see some of you again. and many more of you who have yet to experience a Tango Festival in America's oldest and most exciting city. Gracias, Vicky Magaletta President, Tango Society of Boston www.bostontango.org
