Swing Dance Under the Dome

A little-​known but fun — and free — swing dancing venue. Happens on every other Monday on the roof (floor 9) of the San Diego Public Library in the downtown San Diego. To the best of my knowledge, there is no phone and no website for the event; your best bet is checking the Facebook page of the Swing Dancing San Diego,
. You can also try to find the dates on the library web site (
, under the name Shoutin’ in the Library), or, for the early 2016, simply count in two week increments from the event on 1÷25÷2016.
The free beginner lesson starts at 6:30PM with dancing 7−8PM (unlike many dance venues, this one starts on time, so allow yourself 10 minutes for parking and the elevator ride). The crowd is about 40 – 50 dancers (up to a hundred on a busy day), with a quite large percentage of beginners, and a few intermediates. The lesson is intended for true beginners and assumes no previous dance experience. Typically the event happens to the DJ music, but occasionally a real band is playing. The money for hiring of the band is augmented through the completely optional donations — so if you want bands to play more frequently, find the donation box (usually by the exit) and part with some hard-​earned cash of yours.
Few tips:
a) The event occurs on the roof, i.e. outdoors, so the view is great — but the temperature matches the one outside, so dress wisely. In the event of a rain, the dance is not cancelled, but moved instead inside a hall on the same 9^th floor. The hall has a carpeted floor and an OK ventilation.
b) The library roof is paved with relatively smooth concrete tiles, so this dance floor might be unsuitable for your good dancing shoes, although limited pivots can be executed by a skilled dancer. There are grooves between the tiles, so the stiletto heels will not work well either. Your dancing shoes will work well on the carpet of the hall, thus you might want to bring them with you in case foul weather forces the event indoors.
c) Plenty of free parking is available in the garage under the library (entrance off the 11^th Avenue). A lower level of the parking (accessible through a narrow tunnel on the right side of the parking entrance) is typically almost empty. Do not forget to validate your parking ticket on the first floor of the library using a device on the left side of the information desk, the device resembles a barcode scanner at the store checkout. Validation is for two hours, the dance is shorter, but typically the tickets are not checked upon exit, since the library is closed already when the event finishes, so a little overstay if also free. On some occasions, however, I had to pay $ 1.25 for extra minutes.