Alpine Jitterbugs - Shag 'n' Bal

The "Alpine Jitterbugs - Shag 'n' Bal" project was founded in 2019. It is a three-day festival for swing culture and is now one of the most popular of its kind in Europe. It is also considered one of the largest swing culture festivals in Austria. It has already been held three times at Congress Innsbruck - Orangerie (December 2019, May 2022 and March 2023). Despite the interruption of the pandemic (2020-2021), this festival has seen increasing popularity and growing numbers of participants (~ 250 participants). A swing culture festival of this kind consists primarily of evening events with live music and a wide range of dance classes. The evening events are considered the highlight of the weekend, because in addition to the unique swing bands from all over Europe and dancers from all over the world, everyone can completely return to the time of this culture or revive it. Whether with handmade vintage clothing, vintage hairdressers or learning various dance styles from the 1920s to 1940s, the whole festival is in the spirit of swing culture.

Swing culture is seen as a culture that conveys joie de vivre, that is open and accessible and a culture that creates a place where young and old can come together. Swing culture has been regarded as a very inclusive and, above all, gender-friendly cultural scene since the 1920s. People of all backgrounds, genders and sexual orientations are very welcome. The passion for music and dance is seen here as a link between people. The fact that swing dance is practised as a "social" dance, in which there are no fixed dance partners, but partners are changed regularly, is just as important as the fact that the dance roles are gender-independent. So it often happens that two women or two men dance together.

However, this project is not only intended to attract and inspire international guests, but also to strengthen and promote our local swing culture. The Alpine Jitterbugs Innsbruck association is therefore very keen to support the local swing culture by allowing local musicians to perform alongside the international greats.
are allowed to perform. The local swing dance scene also benefits from this event on many levels. On the one hand, actively through the dance courses offered by the international instructors at various levels of experience and from the dance-intensive evening events. On the other hand, this festival should have a motivating effect on the local swing culture scene and encourage them to visit other countries and their swing culture scenes and festivals.