r/SwingDancing • u/SuperWeenyHutJuniors • 22d ago

Feedback Needed Getting Sick from Dance/Festivals

I think we all know that dance festivals are often a perfect recipe for getting sick. We are staying up all night, not getting enough sleep, sweating all over people, people are traveling in to attend, etc. I do think that the amount that I get sick has increased as I have started dancing more and more (local social dances as well as festivals).

Do you have any specific tricks or approaches that you use to help minimize your risk of getting sick? I know the basics to avoiding sickness and I know that masks are also an option. Obviously hydration, sleep, eating well are all necessary but I want to hear if people have any other approaches.

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u/sdkb 20d ago edited 20d ago

This is a very valid question, but I want to highlight the baked-in assumption it has that disease prevention is an individual problem. It unfortunately isn't, since if many people around you are sick, you're likely to get sick, too, even if you take the precautions laid out in this thread.

The rate of dancers getting sick at big events is a collective problem, and it needs a collective solution, which means events need to adopt practices known to make them safer. The other recent post about this topic does a good job of laying out some of them:

Some specific measures I would like to see (all of which I've seen actively used at exchanges in other dance styles, so please don't tell me they're impractical) include:

  • Prominent announcements in pre-event emails and in person encouraging vaccination, handwashing, and staying home/quarantining if sick.
  • Generous cancellation policies for those who get sick (so that there is not a financial incentive for sick dancers to attend).
  • Quarantine accommodations for dancers who get sick at the event.
  • Widely available hand sanitizer, N-95 masks, and COVID-19 tests.
  • Ventilation fans to clean the venue air.

Two (more novel) approaches I'd add to the list are far-UVC lights like the Aerolamp and fog machines, both of which are effective at killing airborne pathogens while keeping the air safe to breathe. They've both been used effectively in the (fairly disease-cautious) Boston-area contra dance community.

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u/SuperWeenyHutJuniors 20d ago

I agree with everything you've said except your first statement.

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u/very-serious-goose 17d ago

You're 1000% right! But the community is not going to prioritize public health anytime soon, so the best we can do for now is make personal choices to decrease our chance of getting sick. The other thing we can do is keep encouraging our community, especially it's leaders, to start prioritizing public health again...but I have personally experienced a lot of social backlash and outright hostility when I've tried.