Spooky Southern Blues 2026
We are living and dancing on Kaurna Country and pay our respects to Elders past, present and future.
SOUTHERN BLUES 2026, SPOOKY EDITION
2026 promises to be the spookiest party in town so come celebrate All Hallow’s Eve weekend in Adelaide, South Australia.
3ish days of blues dancing to live music, workshops with international instructors, and catch ups with the spookiest pals around.
Schedule
Thursday 29 October:
Lindy Hop Class with Mike and Dan and Social Dancing
Venue: Enfield RSL, 1 Fitzgerald Ave, Enfield, Kaurna Yerta
Class: 7pm – Intermediate+ Lindy Hop workshop
Social: 8.15pm – 11pm
Floor: Polished wood
Music: Adelaide’s best swing DJs
Bar: Full bar, no BYO
Seperate tickets required – more information coming soon.
Friday 30 October:
Pre-party dinner
Venue: Lucky Dumpling Markets, Elder Park – FREE Admission!
Time: starting at 4.30pm when the venue opens.
No dancing just come catch up with friends overlooking the beautiful Torrens River – across the road from our evening venue.
Purchase your own meal / drinks at the bars and many food vendors.
Taster class and evening party
Venue: Torrens Rowing Club (Victoria Drive, near the intersection with King William Street)
All levels blues Taster class with Mike and Dan: 6pm-7pm
Social: 7pm-12pm
Theme / dress: Fancy Friday
Floor: Polished wood
Band: The Honey Badgers
Bar: Full bar, no BYO.
Late night
Venue: Memphis Slim’s House of Blues: 22 Gilbert Place, Adelaide (downstairs)
12pm-2am
Floor: Polished concrete
Music: DJ music
Bar: Full bar, no BYO.
Please note: this is a public bar with its own dress-code and venue capacity, it is open to all to attend.
Saturday 31 October:
Workshops with Mike and Dan
Venue: Lithuanian House, 6 Eastry St, Norwood, 5067
Time: 10:30am – 4:45pm
Floor: Wooden floor
Bring a water bottle, and change of clothing if required
Plenty of lunch options nearby
Saturday evening until late
Venue: UPSTAIRS at Rhino Rooms. 1/131 Pirie Street, Adelaide.
Time: 8pm – 3am
Theme / dress: Spooky Saturday
Floor: Polished wood
Music: TBA
Bar: Full bar, no BYO.
Sunday 1 November:
Daytime dancing at Ern Malley
Venue: Ern Malley, 137 Magill Road, Stepney
Time: 1.30pm – 6pm
Theme / dress: Florals
Floor: Inside wood, outside pavers
Music: DJed blues and slow jazz
Bar: Full bar, no BYO, support the venue by purchasing a drink. Small snacks available to purchase.
Sunday evening until late
Venue: TBA – in the CBD
Time: 7pm – 1am
Theme / dress: What makes you feel good
Music: Band TBA
Bar: Full bar, no BYO, support the venue by purchasing a drink. Some late night snacks provided.
Teachers and Workshops
📣 Southern Blues is so excited to announce our teachers for 2026, Dan and Mike Legenthal!
Fresh off of two weeks of teaching at the Blues Experiment, the Legenthals are super excited to bring their dancing knowledge, energy, and spookiest outfits to the Australian blues community over Halloween.
👻 Dan Legenthal is a blues idiom, vernacular jazz, and swing dancer currently living in Atlanta, GA. He specializes in early-to-mid 1900’s era African American improvised partner dances done to Blues and Jazz-Blues music. Dan’s classes draw inspiration from his background in classical guitar, as well as from lessons and conversations with Blues historians and legendary Blues players like Phil Wiggins, Gaye Adegbalola, Elijah Wald, Daryl Davis, and Rich Delgrosso, just to name a few. Since 2012 Dan has taught, DJed, and performed around the world at events like The Blues Experiment (USA), Seoul Blues Dance Festival (South Korea), and Spoonful of Blues (Scotland).
👻 Mike Legenthal became a full-time blues dancer in 2007. She has taught at events all over the world, from Boston to Milan, and Seoul to Sydney. A teacher’s teacher, she often serves as head judge, teaches the instructor-training tracks, and pushes dancers to learn more about the roots of the dances and music we love so much. Yet while her resume may look intimidating, her classes are full of creativity, warmth, and laughter. Her classes are incredibly welcoming, and are a perfect place for those with a natural groove or with two left feet. In her dancing, she seeks to be distinctive and creative, and to always drive towards the heart of blues aesthetic and culture. She immerses herself in the music and in playful, dynamic partnership. As an instructor, she offers both detailed technical descriptions and imaginative metaphors, to reach a wide range of minds. She is clever and respectful, and hopes to leave her students engaged in nuanced critical thought- and to get them out onto the dance floor.
Image credit to Ben Hejkal Photography.
Last year you told us you wanted an Advanced option so this year we’re trialling something new for the Saturday workshops…
Class 1, 2 and 3: Foundation Classes
Foundation classes are suitable to those with some blues dancing experience. Beginners blues knowledge will be assumed.
Class 4: Advanced Class
Advanced is for those who have been dancing blues for 3+ years. Who have attended multiple dance exchanges and who are familiar with and who can social dance many different styles of blues.
Class levels will be self-selected. Places in Advanced will be more limited that Foundations.
Due to event capacities, the Advanced class will not be able to be purchased without the Foundation classes (sorry, but we gotta pay these incredible teachers!)
Class Descriptions:
Foundations 1: Juke Joint Dances and Personal Authenticity
One of the things that makes partnered Blues dances unique is the way and the degree to which they value the individual dancer within the partnership. In this class we’ll strengthen your Jukin’ fundamentals by diving into some popular Blues Idiom Dances from juke joints, and using them to work on your own clarity, aesthetic, and movement quality before putting those skills immediately to use in partnership.
Foundations 2: Close Embrace But Make it Gooder
Ok, sure… you can do close embrace fine. But is your close embrace art yet? Could it be…. Better? What’s holding you back? Come geek out and make your close embrace something to behold – pun fully intended.
Foundations 3: Hard Moves to Improve Your Technique
This class is pretty much what the title says. We’ve got some hard moves and sequences put together for y’all which will improve your technique, partnership, and musicality. The goal is to move quickly and give you lots of homework rather than perfect any one of the moves or sequences. Prepare to take copious notes and videos!
The Stride is a travelling Blues Idiom Dance that originally comes from the Mississippi River Delta region (e.g. New Orleans) that features a unique leg-to-leg-to-leg connection. Savoy Walk is a travelling Blues Idiom Dance that originally comes from the Savoy Ballroom in New York City that mixes ideas and techniques from Ballroom, Swing, and Blues dances and is known for its flashy punctuation of dips and tricks. During this class we’ll cover some of the fundamental similarities and differences, then apply their wildly different techniques to your freestyle Blues dancing.
Tickets
Registrations for Southern Blues 2026 will open on 2 July 2026, 12pm (ACST)
Early Bird Tickets available from the 2nd until the 19th of July
Foundation Workshops + Socials
$290
Foundation Workshops + Advanced Class + Socials
$310
Standard tickets and social passes from the 20th July
Foundation Workshops + Socials
$310
Foundation Workshops + Advanced Class + Socials
$330
Social Only Ticket ** Subject to Availability
$210
Please note: these tickets do not include the Thursday Lindy Hop Class or Social.
Parent/Carer’s pass: Social passes and workshop passes may be shared between two parents/carers to allow for childcare during the event. Please indicate this upon registration. Only one person may attend at any given time unless additional tickets purchased.
Cancellation Policy:
We greatly appreciate people who sign up early – it gives us certainty over how the event will run, and we can start planning accordingly! That also means we understand if plans change, and our cancellation policy reflects that for as long as possible.
We are happy to offer a full refund (less booking costs) if your pass is cancelled on or before 10 September 2026. Simply send us an email and we’ll sort you out.
We are happy to offer at least a 50% refund if your pass is cancelled between 11 September and 1 October 2026. Send us an email and we’ll issue the partial refund – if we have a waitlist, we may be able to give your pass to someone else and possibly issue a full refund.
After 1 October 2026, no refunds will generally be provided. If we have a waitlist, we may be able to give your pass to someone else and possibly issue a full refund.
Volunteering
We love our volunteers! Volunters have always been an integral part to the success of Southern Blues events while building community and connections across Australia.
Upon registration you will be asked if you wish to express your interest in volunteering. Shifts won’t be longer than 2.5 hours and a token financial reimbursement will be provided to volunteers after the event.
T-Shirts
Introducing our Adelaide parklands inspired Fruit Bat friends for the 2026 Spooky Southern Blues T-shirts and Tote Bags. “A highly intelligent, social, and caring mammal…” Find out more about the Adelaide fruit bats here.
Design by Adelaide Illustrator, Madeleine K
Maddie says about the design: “I had a lot of fun drawing these batty figures in blues dancing poses, they’re our precious flying foxes and I’d like to think after a night feasting on the luscious delights of Adelaide they’re euphorically dancing the blues on the crescent moon, feeling joyful and free with the music and moonlight surrounding them.”
The BLUE design will be on the T-shirts and the ORANGE design will be on the Tote bags!
T-shirt is available to purchase in Fitted, Non-fitted and Crop Top versions.
Fitted Size Guide here,
Non-fitted Size Guide here,
Crop Top Size Guide here.
Bands
More Announcements Coming Soon!
Friday Night
The Honey Badgers
Saturday Night
Nicolina and the Rituals
DJ Team
We love the home-grown talent of blues DJs that entertain us each year.
Selected DJs are paid for their time and get to share their “rare finds” or “playlists of bangers” with the masses.
DJs TBA soon!
Organising Team
Rae J.
MANAGER of Things since 2014.
Max P.
DJ Coordinator
Kayla and Ian
Keeping Rae sane and bakin’ cupcakes
Swing Dance Adelaide Committee
Code of Conduct and Complaints/Feedback
All attendees of all Swing Dance Adelaide events are subject to the Swing Dance Adelaide Code of Conduct. Please familiarise yourself with our Code of Conduct before attending Southern Blues.
Swing Dance Adelaide maintains a Complaints and Feedback Management Policy. Anonymous or non anonymous reports may be submitted on the Policy webpage, or by emailing swingdanceadelaide@gmail.com