Registration has already attracted 32 dancers. Thank you for your enthusiasm! This year I will post these news updates in the News tab of the website. Here is the "Registration is open" email.

The festival on the weekend of April 22-24, 2016, features Roberto Bagnoli teaching mainly Balkan dances, George & Irina Arabagi teaching dances from Moldova and Ukraine, and Orkestar RTW leading the party on Saturday evening. 

A couple of days ago, I received this email from Andi Kapplin who had just finished a dance weekend with Roberto: "Our weekend workshop was FANTASTIC!". I asked for more and she obliged. See her review of Roberto here.

This year on the registration form, I invited you to list dances you wanted added to the recorded dances playlist choices. See list at the bottom of this email. These dances plus all the dances taught last year have been added to the Playlist dance choices.

Playlist voting is now open! I want all the dancers coming to the festival to participate in choosing the recorded dances that we do on Friday evening and during all the other breaks in the weekend. Here is the amazing playlist that you all helped form for the 2015 festival.

Following are the steps you need to take to participate in choosing the recorded dances. Note: if you have a user-id from last year, it will be ready for you once I process your festival registration.

• Register for the festival either online or by mailing in a registration form 
• Apply for a user-id for the Lyrids website
• You will get a confirmation email once your user-id is approved
• On the Playlist page, look in the sidebar for directions on how to vote and how to add new dances
• Please ask for help if you can't figure it out! Tip: after clicking a button, it may take a few seconds for it to respond and for the button to change colour depending on how responsive your computer is.

But wait, there's more! Tuesday, April 19, and Thursday, April 21, Roberto Bagnoli will be in town to teach pre-festival workshops, both from 7 to 10pm. On April 19, Burnaby Folk Dancers will host the workshop at Charles Rummel Hall, 3630 Lozells Ave, Burnaby, BC. On April 21, Surrey Folk Dancers will host the workshop at Walnut Road Elementary School, 16152 82 Ave, Surrey, BC.

After the Lyrids weekend, is the After-Party at my house in Surrey, BC, on Sunday, April 24, from 5-10 pm. Roberto will be there and dinner will again be catered by my brother-in-law. RSVP required. All festival registrants are invited but attendance is limited to approximately 40 dancers.

Posters, hand-outs, registration forms are all available to be downloaded. Please help others in your folk dance group find out about the festival by emailing to your members, or printing and having them available at your club.

Find all the details at lyridsfolkdancefestival.org.

Happy Dancing!
Dale Adamson
Chair of the Lyrids Folk Dance Festival Committee, Burnaby International Folk Dancers.

Please forward this email to all your folk dance friends!
Comments and suggestions are always welcome.