A lot of variety is seen in different events. Snacks and drinks are offered in many venues and events. Shared meals offered inside the event is usually only done at marathons and tango camps / tango holidays.
Venues that have a bar will have different sorts of drinks offered than venues without a bar.
It also highly depends on who is running the bar: will it be the venue or the event? If its the venue, usually prices are higher, and the organizers have only limited influence over the prices and choice of drinks.
In other events, like Pequena an alcohol pass can be purchased, which creates a flat rate of a choice of alcoholic drinks for the pass holder.
Paid drinks
Often offered by bars that are run by venues. Choices of drinks offered are more varied than free drink offers. Usually includes a selection of wines and sparkling wines, beer, and soft drinks. Sometimes harder spirits are offered like rum, gin or vodka. Also sometimes cocktails are available, like Aperol Spritz, or others.
Often also some form of coffee machine is available that offers espresso-based drinks.
A drink station is the place where the free drinks are offered, and where empty drink containers (cups, glasses, bottles) can be safely stored.
What cups to use?
The main choice is: single-use paper cups or reusable cups. The decision depends on many individual factors.
Promote reuse of cups
Cups will be reused if people can store them in a way that they find their cup again. The three most used ways of making cups retrievable:
Marking cups with a pen
Using a grid (see image)
Using paperclips that have a name on them
Some events also have other ideas:
At Peirce-Oreille participants were encouraged to bring their own cups for use.
Error creating thumbnail: File missingGlass bottles with attached paper labels, observed at Garua 2022At Garua everyone receives a re-usable glass water bottle, which is labelled with an attached paper label.
Single-use cups
These are usually paper cups with a plastic coating to make them water proof. They can be bought in bulk at many supermarkets or wholesalers. Of course they can be re-used
How many will you need? It depends on many factors. Just a sample thought experiment: Each participant will drink once per hour, and you have 30 hours of total dance time, and you guess that participants will be present only 75% of the time... so you will need x * 1 cup/hour * 30 hour * 0.75 = 22.5 cups per participant.
Advantages
Disadvantages
cheap per cup
need many
hygienic
difficult to guesstimate
does not require cleaning
creates a lot of trash
does not require a water glass station
not sustainable
Reusable cups
Depending on your setup, you will either be able to use cups from the venue (e.g. the bar) or you will need to provide them. If you are providing the cups, you can either buy them yourself, or rent them from a caterer.
Advantages
Disadvantages
no trash
more expensive
sustainable
hygienic only if cleaned well
requires cleaning (equipment, labor)
requires place to store them
requires marking cups for retrieval
if you buy your own, you will also need to store them between events
Food
Dancing is a form of sport, and thus any consideration of food should take this into account. Your participants will need to get enough calories, either on your event, or elsewhere.
Most events at least offer snacks, but especially marathons offer brunch and dinner, or only brunch or only dinner. Most marathons that offer food have food included in the participation fee, while some also offer food as an option only.
Why offer food?
If your event is a marathon or encuentro your guests will spend a significant time at the event. For many dancers it's great to not take care of food themselves, especially if there are no convenient sources of food around the venue. Full food provisions at the event helps to create that tango bubble where everything is catered for and dancers only need to think about dancing, socializing, and taking care of their feet…
Overall, events with included food are also cheaper when one takes into account that participants would otherwise need to visit cafes and restaurants for their nutritional needs.
Why not offer food?
It's a lot of work, or can be quite expensive. Depending on your venue you might not be able to cook, or have a dedicated eating area, or you just can't handle the extra complexity.
Also: if your event location is close to many restaurants (for example like Abrazame in Barcelona), then it is easier for your participants to find food. Events in remote locations don't have that luxury.
Food intolerances and dietary preferences
Something that many people are not aware, and which makes life more difficult to those who suffer from it.
Dietary preferences are usually vegan, vegetarian or omnivore. These are usually life style choices, and are quite easy to cater to.
Food Intolerances are genetic or medical conditions, and not life style driven. Examples are lactose intolerance or gluten intolerance (celiac). People with intolerance usually need to avoid certain kinds of food, otherwise they face medical consequences.
We have seen in our events that up to 20% of participants are either vegan or vegetarian. 10% are lactose intolerant, and usually only a few people per event are gluten intolerant.
It's actually quite easy to take care of special needs foods: At mtangoparty we chose to make the basis of food vegan (=lactose free, too!), with potatoes or rice (no pasta, no gluten). Additionally for the omnivores we had a separate meat serving. This way everyone's needs are taken care of and even the vegans have choices for their food selection. Caterers often are not prepared for this kind of thinking, but they usually can do it if asked explicitly.
Heated croissants/media lunas, often late at night, or after the milonga ends in the early morning hours.
Brunch
Since tango usually lasts until late at night people sleep longer and arrive for breakfast/lunch - brunch - at the event. Thus usually a mix of sweet and salty dishes are offered.
When choosing the food, please take into consideration that this is the first meal of the day for many, and they won't have any larger meal until dinner. Thus the food must be offering enough slow calories to last a bit longer. White carbs and sweet cakes are not enough, but things like egg and cheese are usually quite good foundations.
Brunch is relatively easy to be done by the helper team, but beware of needed tasks that take time. Anything that can be bought and just needs to be arranged is easy, but things that need to be cooked or prepared needs helping hands and time. (Example: freshly made scrambled eggs, boiled eggs, or cut vegetable/fruit).
Catering can deliver brunches- but the price is often more expensive than if you buy stuff in the supermarket - and mixing catering services and self-bought stuff can be the best option.
Dinner
Dinner is one of the most difficult meals to prepare yourself. If you have access to a professional kitchen, you can try to do it, but please bring in people with experience in planning and cooking for so many people.
If you prepare the meal yourself, you can of course have full control over the menu. Usually you can also offer much higher quality at lower price than when working with a caterer.
Catering
If you cannot prepared the dinner yourself, you will probably buy it from a caterer. Some venues will not allow you to freely chose a caterer, whereas others will allow you to chose the caterer that fits with your requirements and budget.
Most caterers will have more fancy solutions in their portfolio than you are willing to pay for, so you should have a good idea what you are willing to pay for, and what kind of food you might want.
