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I liked philly. But it seems that regardless of the city, BA has never been able to draw a large crowd. Boston, SD, and Philly.

http://www.facebook.com/bollywoodamerica

Already a heated debate going on haha :)

I know, that's why i started the thread here. To have a more controlled discussion. I think Bollywood America should be at a city where they can sell out because they have been unsuccessful at that 3 years in a row.

Tampa, FL. Bayside Bhangra was held there and it was run by FDA, they sold it out and it was run pretty well. All teams got a bottle of goose in their welcome baskets!

NNR gives out Grey Goose too. The only fusion comp I know that does that.

I think NYC would be a sick place to host BA. So many teams love to travel there, but its unfortunate that TMP and BOB are the only two competitions held there.

I think they should have a permanent area like they do for Raas Nationals and BOB. If it was Miami, that would be sick!

Phoenix, AZ should be the next city for Bollywood America.

Obviously, I am extremely biased, but Phoenix is the best place to host the event. The actual show can be held in beautiful theaters such as Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Tempe Center for the Arts, Chandler Center for the Arts, ASU Gammage, Orpheum Theater, Symphony Hall, and that's only a small percentage of them. I have worked with all of the backstage crews for the actual theater and they all understand the craziness of South Asian shows and how important lighting cues, backstage space, dressing rooms, and lobby decoration is for said shows. Bollywood America will be welcomed with open arms and classic western hospitality from Arizona locals. The hotels around here are extremely cooperative when it comes to large groups of people. Contrary to popular belief, Cacti and sand are not the only things in Arizona. On ASU's campus there is an amazing night life and Scottsdale is definitely a place I would love to be at for an after party.

The problem people seem to be bringing up is publicity and getting people to come to the actual event. The South Asian community here is huge. The Arathi School of Indian Dances, one of the local classical dance schools, has held multiple performances, including the annual Magic in Movement show, and has often sold out 800 to 1000 tickets. There are multiple South Asian organizations and companies that will be willing to sponsor a prestigious national show such as Bollywood America. The ASU's South Asian organization, USSA, I believe, will be happy to help out with anything the organizers of BA need. When it comes to publicity, Phoenix is still going to be the perfect place to have it at. Almost all of UA Om Shanti members go to school in Tucson (2 hours away) but they all live in Phoenix. Hopefully we'll qualify for Bollywood America 2013, but even if we don't, we would love to help publicize for the event and bring a huge crowd to the show. Having Bollywood America in Phoenix, Arizona is such a good idea I can go on and on about it obviously, but I'm sure the organizers will end up making the best choice for Bollywood America 2013!

Can't wait to see where it ends up being =)

In addition to what ^Aaliya said, let's look at only a handful of amazing venues in Phoenix/Chandler/Scottsdale/Tempe.

**Chandler Center for the Arts: http://www.chandlercenter.org/cca-pics/ ... n4-web.jpg
Amazing, amazing theater. Tech crew (Dean and Bill) have done a million dance shows, and this theater is MADE FOR dance. Kavya (Black Swan) and I had our Arangetram there, and have done multiple dance shows for school there and know the place inside and out. There is a huge green room off to stage right, and a dance studio connected to the back of the stage for teams to practice before and after tech run as well...just to name a few pros.

**Scottsdale Center for the Arts: http://hvr1.com/wp-content/uploads/2010 ... 00x222.jpg
Located right in the middle of Scottsdale - close to a lot of possible venues for after party. Also complete with a very very skilled tech crew. multiple, multiple dressing rooms downstairs.

**Orpheum: http://www.pstos.org/instruments/bc/van ... torium.jpg
One of the most prestigious and beautiful stages to perform on. They've held Lion King the musical here, so you know it has to be good :p. This theater is in downtown Phoenix, and again close to a TON of possible venues for the after party. We could probably find a hotel, the after party, and the theater within walking distance of each other.

**Tempe Center for the Arts:
outside: http://www.examiner.com/images/blog/rep ... lt_tca.jpg
inside: http://www.tpcworld.com/files/news/proj ... _thumb.jpg
Another venue that was recently redesigned - it is gorgeous now. Not as familiar with this theater, but enjoyed performing there. I do remember spacious, and multiple dressing rooms, and areas in the back of the auditorium where teams could practice on a rotation schedule.

**Gammage:
outside: http://www.asu.edu/tour/tempe/photos/ggma.jpg
inside: http://static.flickr.com/43/79598042_c864497a2e_o.jpg
This theater belongs to ASU - so you know what that means: close to the ASU campus, and there are A TON of Indians who go to school there. A TON. ASU is near down town Phoenix ~10 miles away. Sonu Nigam performed here when he came to concert - brought a HUGE crowd, just as Bollywood America will.

**Phoenix skyline: http://www.arizonahomesland.com/images/ ... sunset.jpg

**Arizona sunset: http://localism.com/image_store/uploads ... 763497.png Also including this picture, because you will never find sunsets like this anywhere else in the country.

**Grand Canyon: http://images.travelpod.com/users/madha ... canyon.jpg
Families who come from out of state to support their dance teams now finally have an excuse to come to Arizona to see one of the wonders of the world!! People travel from all over the WORLD to see this place .

BOLLYWOOD AMERICA 2013 IN ARIZONA!!! You will not be disappointed.


Neha Giridharan ("White Swan")
UofA Om Shanti Co-Founder 2008
Captain/Choreographer

As long as it's not in NJ, that's all I care about. When I think of BA, I'd like to be away from home. I didn't realize this until I spoke to Girish (BSB) about BA being in their home town. Yeah, hometown advantage is cool but it's not exotic. Also, I don't know if it's a philly thing, but I understand the complaints people had about the crowd at PhillyFest, the crowd in Philly is rude and distracting. But I hear Phillies and Eagles game are the same way, so it might just be a philly thing.

I also think BA should establish a foundation and footing in one location. Cause when you move around, you start from scratch each time, With board members (sorta), sponsorship, logistics strategies, and a bunch of other important things. This is why Elite 8 and RAS are so well done year after year. They understand the city they are in and know how to work it. It took me 2 years to properly learn everything about University of Delaware (Newark, DE where NNR was). If I was to do NNR again next year, it would be on a completely different level just because of what I learned this past year about Newark, DE. Same way NNR this year was 10x better than last year. You learn things from being in a city long enough and working with it's features.

I don't think that it should be in one location because, well to me, it takes away the magic that its in a different city every year. Taking into consideration what Uneeq said maybe have 2-3 different cities and alternate from year to year.

But again the fact that having it in one central location is pretty awesome. I know tons of people that look forward to Phillyfest and thats the only competition they go to while they are in Philly. Or even like Boston where it has BBC and SAS.




P.S.- Don't hate on Philly, Jersey isn't any better and this is coming from a Jersey boy! =P
P.P.S.- Maybe try and have it in canada that would be pretty baller

Om Shanti kinda sold me on Arizona but...

since we're going for exotic, I'll go for a reach and say Hawaii! though the sickest would be PR..guess that would be a bit of an expensive flight..but one can dream

More realistically,
Texas - Dallas, Houston
Florida - Tampa, Miami/ who cares as long as we're near the beach
Illinois - Chicago

left out Cali only because BA was there last year but Cali's always a good time

If we're speaking realistically...wouldn't you want to hold a competition where you will get a good crowd and sell tickets? Arizona's ish is on point with location and everything...but how would they do in terms of ticket sales. If you can't sell tickets, what's the point of having a competition? Dancelife listed some good realistic places (texas, chicago, or Florida.) I personally think Florida would be a legit spot. When raas teams go out for Miami Mayhem, regardless of how the competition was, everyone always had a great time...just because it's Florida.

Florida is bad idea. Dance Fusion never sold out here. Not even 1/3 sold out. Stay in philly. PF sells out because of it's vicinity to all the campuses. Surprised to hear BA didn't sell out but i'm sure next year it will. BA should stay in Philly. I heard it was horribly run in Boston, and not the greatest in SD. It's been it's best at Philly. Like UneeQ said, when you know the city, you can manage things better.

Go back to the West Coast! Or go to the South! BA should be in someplace that is warm. Any East coast team that went last year would agree that having BA in San Diego was awesome. Philly is cool and all, but as someone mentioned before, BA should in some place exotic and, more importantly, some place WARM. No one likes going to comps in cold areas, specially not teams from the East coast. I remember last year going to BA seemed like spring break all over again cause SD was so nice and warm. I also think that BA last year was better organized, at least from our perspective, can't speak for the rest of the teams.

I'm advocating for Arizona, Texas, or California.

East Coast is cool, but too cold.