The Festival began in 1920 in
the Empress Ballroom at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, you can find out
more by visiting our
History section. 2010 will see the event in it's 85th year.
Covering a period of nine days this is by far the largest of all the five
Blackpool Festivals.
The Festival covers Ballroom and Latin American dancing, incorporating the
British Open Championships for Adult Amateur and Professional couples, plus
Formation Teams. 2005 saw the introduction of two new events, the British
Rising Star Amateur Ballroom and Latin Competitions.
The two Invitation events, the Professional Team Match on the Saturday and
the
Exhibition Competition on the Thursday evening, create a vast amount of
interest and crowd appeal.
There were 60 countries represented in 2009 and a total number of 1,808
couples, one Ballroom Formation Team and three Latin Formation Teams
entered the various
events.