Salsa City Forum » News and Chat » Tuesday Latin Night at Zync, Cardiff

I went to the new Cardiff Latin night at Zync last night and had a great time. It’s a nicely designed bar with powerful air-conditioning that is actually switched on, a radical innovation for smoky Cardiff. The sound quality is adequate and the music was not deafeningly loud. The music was a mixture of salsa, Brazilian dance-music, merengue and bachata. The show was three Cardiff-resident Brazilian girls who took to the dancefloor at intervals to strut their stuff—very entertaining. There weren’t many of the native Cardiff Latin dancers there last night, but it’s well worth a look in future. It is sufficiently different in environment and atmosphere for the other Cardiff Latin nights to succeed and be a valuable contribution.

It runs from 8.00pm to 2.00am. It’s £2 to get in and Stella Artois is £3 per pint.

I thought this place was kinda nice too... However it’s the kinda place that you need to turn up with people you know. It appeared to be clickey but I think its a pretty nice place. I will check it out sometime again with some friends.

Well I turned up to Zync with a friend at about 10.45pm last night. Quite a few people there, though there didn’t seem to be many actual dancers there... maybe about 5 couples. Saw the samba shows and although it was something different to watch, I thought the girls’ performance was amateurish. (sorry!) This was heightened by the screen in the background which showed cheesy latin videos. The venue itself is lovely, though the dance floor is quite small.

Didn’t really enjoy myself there, basically because there was no-one to dance with and I wasn’t impressed at all with the shows. Ended up not staying very long, and headed off to Callaghan’s where I had a fab night dancing with the regulars :).

Incidentally at about 12.30am I checked out Cuba. Although it has changed its music and door entry policy, when I peeked in there was noone dancing salsa even though they were playing the right music. The place was full of students who were in black tie... I wonder if it’ll ever be as good as it used to be on a Tue, even more unlikely now with the increased competition.

I thought the videos were an interesting glimpse into another culture. I agree there weren’t enough dancers, but if you had been near the dancefloor looking like you wanted to dance (doing a few subtle steps), I would have asked you to dance. I think the place has a lot of potential.

There’s another section of wooden floor at the other end of the bar so, if it gets busy, maybe they’ll clear the tables off that to make more room for dancers, and, I just remembered, there’s another floor upstairs (non-smoking) with a dancing area, so there’s plenty of room.

What are the new door and music policies at Cuba?

Hey Hugh, I was near the dancefloor looking to dance! And doing some subtle steps! And looking around! I also found it a bit cliquey as the few dancers there seemed to be dancing just amongst themselves and not looking around for anyone else. I’m usually really confident about asking guys to dance, but was put off by this set-up.

I agree that the place has a lot of potential but I’m not sure if it’ll be realised. I found the music a bit too general (ie. Too much of a mixture of random Brazilian/Spanish dance music, samba, salsa) whereas I would prefer more salsa music with a hint of merengue/bachata/others. Therefore I think that my Tues venue of choice will continue to be Callaghan’s, though if I hear that Zync is starting to attract big crowds of dancers, I most certainly will pop along again!

With regards to Cuba, I’ve spoken to the bouncers/DJ and they’ve basically said that they want to try and make the Tuesday night like it used to be in the good old days, with lots of salsa dancers and salsa/Latin music. The problem has been that there have been large crowds of men entering the establishment, dancing in large circles and scaring off the women! (the girls will know what I mean...). So they’re no longer playing so much arabic music and are presumably not going to let these large groups of men in. However, I got the impression on Tues that they’re not really succeeding in recreating the old atmosphere - although the music had changed and the large groups of men were not present, the venue was filled with students in black tie and no salsa social dancers!

Thanks, Saz. Very interesting! I’m sorry I missed you in Zync. With regards to the music played there, there wasn’t enough salsa for my taste either but it was exciting to see people who actually knew how to dance to the Brazilian stuff (what with them being Brazilian and all). DJ Mikey seems to have a deep interest in all sorts of Latin music and I’m sure he would be open to influence from the customers on the music he plays.

Can you give us a run-down on what the classes are like in Callaghan’s these days? I stopped going there because I wasn’t impressed with them, they started too late, and went on too long!

Hey Saz, sorry you feel that way. You are the only one who has given BAD feedback coz apart from you, all has been superb feedback.

That Tuesday was mostly samba genre, coza of the show. That does not mean that every Tuesday will be the same! I personally like merengue more than anything else. So the music will always change, unlike Callaghan’s!

Also it looks like you don’t stay long in one place, if you went to Zync then Callaghan’s then Cuba. Busy lady.

Like I said before. It’s a shame you didn’t have a good time, But remember it was the first night, soon there will be more people there to dance.

Thank you

Mikey

Mikey - well I will check Zync out again in the future in that case, to see if it is more to my taste. Of course, it is inevitable when running events that you cannot please everyone all of the time, so it is understandable that although I didn’t enjoy Zync, others did and gave their superb feedback. I tend to check out various places and stay long in those that I like. I stayed the longest in Callaghan’s as I love it there :). But all the best for the forthcoming weeks at Zync.

Hugh - I am not in a position to comment on the classes in Callaghan’s. The last time I went for them it was a couple of months ago, and inadvertently, as they were going on when I thought social dancing had already started! So I tend to go to Callaghan’s a bit later than I used to, and enjoy the social dancing. I didn’t like Callaghan’s at first, but the salsa scene there has completely grown on me!

Alright, I think I may get a life and stop posting such long messages! ;).

When do the classes end in Callaghan’s now?

Hey, I don’t know the exact time, sorry. I go any time after 10.30 and the social dancing is always in full swing. X