Registration – Big City Blues

Big City Blues is almost sold out!

Registration has been open since November 11th. We have some final spots left for full Passes, across all tracks.
When a track is completely sold out, you will see this in the registration form itself and on our socials.
Discount requests are no longer possible. Thanks to our fund and 61 generous donors, we were able to grant 37 dancers access at a discounted rate!
We offer a limited batch of party passes soon. Registration will open November 22nd. Read more about it below.

Read our Terms & conditions (below), Code of Conduct and Privacy & cookie Policy.

Prices

pre after festival activities big city blues 2025

For the full passes only (not party passes), we offer a sliding scale. In case you want to apply a justified reduction, you can easily click the reduction that you need in the registration form without needing to clarify anything else. We trust the genuine honesty of our participants to make festival access more equitous for everyone.

We will do our best to help until the resources of the social and sustainability fund run out. Please be aware that we can only offer the amount of reductions in proportion to the amount of donations to the fund. We guarantee that at least 15% of the fund will be invested in NGOs that support our values such as Collective Voices for Change and Treelogical.

You can find more info about the Social & Sustainability Fund here.

Local dancers (Ghentians) can get a partial reduction by using the UiTPAS kansentarief. If you’re a passholder, please register through the form and send us an email with your UiTPAS number.

LouisLou vzw (Upside Down) is partner van UiTPAS regio Gent. UiTPAS regio Gent is een digitale kaart waarmee je aan cultuur, sport of jeugdactiviteiten kan doen. Je kan met de kaart punten sparen. Die kan je dan omruilen voor een korting, een cadeau of een ander fijn voordeel.

Ben je inwoner van Gent, Merelbeke, Destelbergen, Melle of Lochristi en kom je in aanmerking voor verhoogde tegemoetkoming of ben je in schuldbemiddeling? Dan krijg je extra korting met je UiTPAS. Alle Info over UiTPAS vind je op: www.uitingent.be/uitpas. Ticket met kansentarief? Mail naar bigcityblues@upside-down.be .

Party Passes

Big City Blues is almost sold out, but we have a very limited number of spots left for 3 legendary nights at Big City Blues! We will open registration for party passes on Friday November 22nd, at 7pm.

Compared to our Full passes (with a track of workshop), we will process registration for Party passes a bit differently. Please read the information below carefully to be fully aware of the conditions before signing up for a party pass.

✨ You have 10 days to register for the party pass. Registration for full passes closes again on Dec 3rd at 7pm. So no need to hurry, as we will not process registrations in order of appearance.

✨ Registrations will be accepted based on either priority, or luck:

✨ We prioritize local Ghentians who offer hosting to one or more of our super volunteers. Click the box “I can host someone during the event” when signing up. If you select this option, we will get in touch with you to discuss details first.

✨For all remaining Party passes, we will hold a raffle. If you sign up with a partner in the other dance role, we keep this into account.

There are still some spots in the tracks. Keep an eye on our socials for details, we try our best to update you when possible.

Terms & conditions

Registration FAQs

How do I register?

Click on the ‘register’ button at the top of this page. Before registration opens, you can already click through to the registration website to set up your account.
Log in to your account or create one. Please note that if you register as a couple, each participant will need to create their own account. Please also note that if you have joined an event organized by Upside Down before with the same registration system (such as Upside Down Festival or Upside Down @ Gentse Feesten), you can reuse the same log-in information.
Select your preferred track, and add optional workshops and other extras as you see fit.
In case you register for a partnered track with a partner, add a partner by providing their email address.
Once you register, we need some time to process the registration. It’s possible you need to wait a few days before you hear from us.
If you’re in, you will be invited to pay with Visa, MasterCard, Bancontact or iDEAL within 10 days. After one reminder, we’ll consider your registration not legitimate anymore. If you have issues with the payment, get in touch.
After payment, your ticket will be immediately and automatically sent to your email address.

Do I need to register with a partner?

To keep the festival balanced, we welcome an equal number of leaders and followers.
We encourage you to register with a dance partner, especially if you are in a partnered track.
Single registration for a partnered track is possible, but you might be on the waiting list until we find a match.
If you are used to dance in both roles, you can sign up as a switch dancer. If you do this, we expect you to dance 50% of the time as a lead and 50% of the time as a follow. We believe that this is necessary to keep the quality of the festival high, and to make sure that everyone is having a good time during the parties.
If you are on the waiting list and later on you find a dance partner, ask your partner to add you as their dance partner so you can be matched.

Who can participate?

The Festival’s activities are open to all bodies. Read our Code of Conduct for more information. Under “practical” > “locations” you can check the accessibility for our venues.
We brief our inspirers about working with dancers of different ages, levels and bodies, and encourage them to develop inclusive teaching methods.
We strongly believe that diversity is enriching for all participants, and want to make the festival as inclusive as possible. We know this is an ongoing process, so please let us know how we can do better.
We invite you to let us know in the registration form or by email if there is anything we can take into account regarding the inclusivity of the Festival’s activities.

When do I pay?

Payment has to be done within 10 days after you receive the payment details.
Questions or problems regarding the payment? Don’t hesitate to contact us.

Can I cancel my registration?

If you haven’t paid yet, you can cancel your ticket by sending us an email. Please do, so we can give your spot to somebody else.
You paid for your ticket but you can’t make it after all? There are two options:
- Sell your ticket to someone with the same role (leader, follower or switch) and same level and let us know. There is an option in the
- Inform us and we’ll look for a replacement. If we find someone, we’ll refund your payment -15% administrative fee. We offer this option only until end of December 2024. If we can’t find someone to take your spot, we won’t be able to give you a refund.

What if the festival is cancelled?

In case of a Force Majeure, meaning we have to cancel the festival, we’ll refund tickets for 75%. Unfortunately, any other costs or related losses (travel, accommodation etc.) that the participant incurs due to cancellation, cannot be covered by the organization.

Can I join only for the parties?

We do offer a limited batch of party passes. Read more about this above.

General festival rules

If we have not received your payment within 10 days, your registration may be canceled in order to give other people the chance to participate.
If you have received a spot because you signed up with a partner, your spot is only secured if your partner has also registered and paid. If your partner cancels the festival, you will need to find a replacement in order to keep your spot. You can either find a replacement yourself or write an email to us as we might be able to find someone from the waiting list. In that case, we will refund your partner’s payment -15% administrative fee.
By registering for Big City Blues every participant agrees to picture and video recordings as well as to the use and publication of such recordings for the purposes of public reporting on the event or of marketing of the services offered on our websites, including in social media. If you do not want your image recorded or photographed, send us an email and we will look for a solution together.
For the rare occasion of a teacher getting sick or missing their travel we might have to substitute the teacher in your track or we might have to change the schedule.
We reserve the right to change the time or location of the evening dances, and will communicate any changes on the website and/or social media page.
LouisLou vzw (Upside Down) reserves the right to prioritize people with certain profiles in function of maintaining a balanced audience: ‘level’ of dancing, dance role and socio-economic profiles.
LouisLou vzw (Upside Down) reserves the right to refuse admittance to anyone during the festival.
If you behave inappropriately (see Code Of Conduct), you may be asked to leave without any refunds given.
LouisLou vzw (Upside Down) does not take any responsibility for incidents and/or injuries nor for personal items or valuables that are lost or stolen during the event. Look out for yourself and for others as well.
With your registration to this festival you accept our terms and conditions, and Code of Conduct.