# The Default Contra Dance Weekend Deal

The "dance weekend" is a very common pattern for contra dance communities around the country. I think of the central example as something like:

*   Two bands, two callers.
*   Dancing (with short breaks) Friday 7pm-11pm, Saturday 10am-11pm, Sunday 10am-3pm.
*   Saturday and Sunday daytime are a mixture of regular dances and workshops, sometimes with parallel tracks.

Examples, from my 2025 calendar: [Beantown Stomp](https://www.beantownstomp.com/), [Chehalis](https://chehalisdancecamp.com/), [Dance in the Desert](https://tucsoncontradancers.org/tucson-contra-dancers/dance-in-the-desert-2025/), [Dancing Fish](https://dancingfish.dance/), [Five Borough Fling](https://thefling.org/), [Fleur de Lis Fling](https://register.louisvillecountrydancers.org/reg/lcd/2025/form), [Hashdance](https://fsgw.org/hashtag-dance-weekend), and [Summer Soiree](https://www.ashevillecontra.com/).

I've seen a bunch of misunderstandings that come from people not being on the same page about what is normal: many dance weekends are organized by volunteers, some of which are doing it for the first time; performers often are new to this as well. As someone who has both [played](https://www.freeraisins.com/) [for](https://www.kingfisherband.com/) and [organized](https://www.jefftk.com/p/beantown-stomp-retrospective) dance weekends, I thought it might be helpful to try and write down what I think of as typical if an event is bringing in a band or caller from out of town.

Note that I'm trying to document the status quo here, saying "this is" and not "this is what should be". I would be sad if in places where the status quo isn't great people pointed at this doc and said "Jeff says it's supposed to be that way"; this post is not doing that! Additionally, performers and events are of course free to agree on something that isn't the most common arrangement!

As of the beginning of 2026, here's what I think of as the most common arrangement:

*   Housing: the event provides accommodation, most commonly at someone's house. Performers may need to share rooms, but not beds. If the best travel option means coming a day early or staying a day late the event still provides housing for those additional days. If the performer wants to stay in town longer for sightseeing, that's on them. If the performer has accessibility needs (ex: pet allergies) this is good to discuss up front.
    
*   Travel: the event pays for round trip economy travel, by air if driving would be too long. My sense is that flying becomes customary at the 5-hour mark, but if you're in the 4hr-7hr range it's worth checking in. With air travel this isn't a commitment to take the literally cheapest flight, but performers should use their judgement and try to save the event money. Travel includes bags and/or early boarding if that's needed for the musician to safely bring their instrument, but make sure the event isn't surprised. Flight reimbursement is due when the flight is paid for, not at the event.
    
    Travel includes the cost of getting from one's house to the airport, such as public transit, taxi, or airport parking. Events are often not thinking about this cost, though, so if it's going to be significant it's good to bring it up.
    
    For driving from out of town, reimbursing at the [IRS mileage rate](https://www.irs.gov/tax-professionals/standard-mileage-rates) is standard, but organizations sometimes want to reimburse only gas and tolls. While the gas and tolls are most directly attributable to this trip, the other expenses (purchase, insurance, maintenance) that go into the IRS rate are real costs too.
    
*   Instruments: the performers are expected to bring their instruments, with the event covering the cost. The exception is when this isn't economical, which most often happens with keyboard: this might cost $300 to safely fly round trip. In that case the event should provide a keyboard, typically on loan from someone in the community. The event should make sure the instrument is good quality, but performers should not expect exact models (events are generally not going to be renting instruments). Other examples of instruments (or equipment) I'd expect an event to supply as needed include amps, drum kits, drum thrones, and double basses.
    
    Real pianos are even trickier: many venues don't have them, and the ones that do exist are often poorly maintained and out of tune. At this point I wouldn't recommend trying to play dance weekends on real pianos, but if this is important to you definitely bring it up with the event early.
    
    As someone who plays a lot of instruments, there's also a sense that performers should be thinking about what's economical to fly with in deciding what their setup [should be](https://www.jefftk.com/p/sturdier-and-lighter-pedalboard). If you'll need more than a checked item, carry-on item, and personal item, it's worth thinking about whether you could simplify your setup.
    
*   Transportation: the event provides required transportation during the event, primarily between accomodations and the venue. Sometimes this is letting the performers use a car, sometimes it's giving rides, sometimes it's everything within walking distance.
    
*   Food: the event provides food. This can be food at dancers' houses, take-out, reimbursing restaurants; whatever works best for the event as long as the performers are fed. Food while traveling is usually not covered, though I think there's a good argument that it should be. Events should check with performers about dietary restrictions, and performers should also be proactive in communicating their dietary restrictions.
    
*   Sound: the event provides the sound system, and someone to run it. This includes a full-range PA, cables, mics, DI boxes, and stage monitors. The expectation used to be a minimum of two monitor mixes, but [these days](https://www.jefftk.com/p/live-sound-big-o-improvements) I think the standard is a monitor mix per performer (including the caller!) up to at least 4-6 mixes. If this is important to you, check in about it.
    
*   Guests: most events allow a performer to bring a plus-one, and sometimes multiple guests. The event almost never covers their travel, but often provides free or discounted admission, and usually charges accommodations at cost (which might be zero).
    
*   Working hours: [typically](https://www.jefftk.com/p/dance-weekends-how-much-do-you-play) you're on stage for 7 to 9.5hr of dancing, plus maybe a workshop, for a total of 8.5-11hr. Performers vary a lot in stamina, so if an event wants something towards the high end here this is good to check in on.
    
*   Cancellation: this doesn't happen often, which means people don't think about it, and there can be a lot of friction and misunderstandings here. If the event cancels, they should reimburse the performer's non-refundable expenses, and if it's less than ~3 months out also cover pay. If the performer has to cancel (ex: double booked, family emergency) they should generally not expect any payment and may need to refund already-reimbursed travel, but organizations should try to be compassionate.
    
    Sickness is very tricky. Traditionally, my impression is that performers would still do gigs if they were physically able to, even if they were quite sick. With COVID this has changed, where now dance organizations often say they don't want anyone to attend if sick. This is good in some ways, but dance organizations often don't really think through what it would mean if a performer woke up the day of their flight with a sore throat. I think what's customary today is for performers to communicate symptoms to the organizers, and if the organizers ask the performer not to come still pay the performer and reimburse non-refundable expenses.
    
*   Megaband: it's common for weekends with multiple bands to want to have a final session where they all play together. I find this is pretty high-variance: sometimes the bands gel well and it's really fun, other times they just have really different ideas of what makes good dance music and either band would have been better on their own. Occasionally, after talking with the other band, we've told organizers that we think this wouldn't go well with our particular combination.
    
*   Pay: since the event is covering the big expenses, you're essentially talking about what the performer will net from the event before taxes. I've [shared](https://www.jefftk.com/p/dance-weekend-pay-ii) some of my recent numbers here, though this is a place where [especially in-demand performers](https://www.jefftk.com/p/festival-stats-2025) are likely able to negotiate more.
    
*   Contracts: most of the time events don't do contracts. Instead, the contra dance world operates on reputation, keeping one's word, and trying to do the right thing. I do think contracts are great, if people are good at setting out what their expectations are clearly, but if you're bringing in lawyers they can get expensive, and my impression is the less formal system actually works well. It is good to be clear, though, and I hope this post is a resource for people in thinking through places where they might not be on the same page.
    

As I wrote above, this is definitely not how you have to structure your agreement and specifics can and should vary. If you want to agree on a flat fee for pay + travel, or even a flat fee for everything on this list, that's between the event and the performers. But I think this default deal is good to keep in mind, so you don't agree in principle and then realize this isn't going to work.

*Thanks to Max Newman for reviewing a draft of this post.*

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