Wednesday Night Hop (live music, Benny Amón’s New Orleans Pearls)

Wednesday Night Hop goes on every Wednesday at the ballroom of the First United Methodist Church in Palo Alto. This is by far the largest swing dance event around Palo Alto, with about 100 dancers attending each event. This night is a once-a-month live music variant of the party (Benny Amón’s New Orleans Pearls), so the entrance fee is upped to $20; an online payment at wednesdaynighthop.com is the only way to pay. Masks are not required for the party (still mandated for lesson). I have danced to the music of Benny Amon's New Orleans Pearls before, their sound was excellent.

Dance floor is very large, providing ample room for the dancers, and is of excellent quality. No water is allowed on the dance floor (a water fountain is available in the hall next to the ballroom). Event includes all the standard trappings, like Shim Sham and birthday jam. The dancers' skills vary from true beginners to quite advanced. Event is beginner-friendly and the percentage of beginner follows is significant. At the starting time, there is usually somewhat more followers than leads, ratio evens out due to the natural attrition as the dance progresses, finding a follower to dance with gets harder after 11PM. The more skilled dancers mostly congregate closer to the stage and DJ, intermediate dancers and beginners line up the wall between the entrance doors (there is no clear demarcation and very little seating, except for the stage and few chairs at the wall opposite from the stage, for a follower sitting in these chairs would be taken by many leads as a sign of desire to take a break).

Logistics: You need to pre-pay online on wednesdaynighthop.com, lessons (starting at 7:15PM and 8:15PMPM, newcomer taster class at 8:15PM is included, other classes are extra) might fill up quickly. For the party, you can pre-pay while waiting in line to enter. There is plenty of free parking available on the streets around the church and in the relatively small church parking lot off Byron street. If all of this gets filled (unlikely), virtually unlimited free parking is available in the Webster/Cooper garage structure in the next block (the nearest entrance is off Webster St.). The ballroom is located on the second floor of the Fellowship Hall building, the entrance is between the church buildings off Hamilton street through the courtyard (on the right side of it, while the entrance itself is not visible from the street, an A-frame signage is usually present pointing to the hidden door).