HISTORY OF THE SNOWBALL
History and the start of The Snowball
2005 The Snowball was started by Kenneth Norbelie and Mohan Pakkurti. They wanted to combine a great social swing dance party and the ultimate lindy workshop with the best instructors in one big event located in Stockholm. The first Snowball took place at the end of December and ended with a big New Year’s party.
2006 We found a new location at the Stockholm Museum of Music and engaged the special Snowball All Star Band as our musicians in the evenings. The event was now almost twice as big as the first year!
2007 The organization of Snowball changed and expanded. Hasse & Marie Mattsson were passed the baton from Mohan and became organizers together with Kenneth & Helena. The number of participants at the camp increased. There was a need for a new and bigger venue in the future.
2008 All evening dances were held at the brand new and elegant Clarion Sign Hotel in Stockholm, in their grand ballroom. The New Year's Eve dinner was served at the hotel and many of our participants opted to stay on site. Rumors of the fantastic hotel breakfast spread throughout the lindy hop community.
2009 The event had more bands playing over the course of 7 nights. The house band featured Steven Mitchell & Malcolm Holt as the Rhythm Catz with the Gordon Webster Sextet, along with guest singer Miss Naomi Uyama.
2010 Our sixth year of the Snowball. For the first time we had a Show & Performance class and also a small teachers show. Evaluations of Snowball told us that we are close to our goals – to arrange the ultimate workshop and to engage the best instructors. But close was not enough- we aimed for perfection.
2011 The seventh year classes were held at Clarion Sign and at Dansens Hus, the new balboa floor in Clarion upper was a success and became a permanent solution. The evaluation gave us some hints on improvements to make the Snowball even better, and we were able to implement most in 2012.
2012 In our eight year at the Snowball we introduced our successful and memorable band battles, first between Gordon Webster Sextet with Steven Mitchell & Naomi Uyama and Gentlemen & Gangsters, second between Gordon Webster Sextet with Steven Mitchell & Naomi Uyama and Stockholm Swing All Star band.
2013 Some memorable moments this year were the bands playing together, the invitational lindy hop competition, and all the fantastic dancers who attended. The Challenge – our competition had more participants than we expected, which made it possible for The Snowball to donate 10 000 SEK to the Frankie Manning foundation! The Hot Sugar band made their debut at The Snowball.
2014 The 10th year anniversary innovations: two bands each evening, new decorations in the ballroom, going from red velvet to shiny gold, bands in the hotel bar for two afternoons, bands on the balboa floor for two evenings, and the celebration of the 10th year with 1000 portions of cake! Like the previous year The Challenge made it possible to donate 10 000 SEK to the Frankie Manning Foundation.
2015 This year we broadcast all our competitions and most performances via a live web cast. We also had big screens in both the main ballroom and in the balboa room to display what was going on. Naomi and her Handsome Devils debuted at the Snowball playing both for the lindy and the balboa floor. We opened the area outside the balboa floor for vendors. We put a brand new floor in the balboa room. The evaluations showed that we were still on the right track, but we were always trying to improve.
2016 This year we tried a new competition concept by adding a late night slow/blues contest. The blues floor got a live band for the first time, Joakim Falk Blue Devils. The Challenge made it possible to donate money and this year we chose to give it to Mr Chazz Young.
2017 This year we added a late night fast feet competition, we had new decorations in the ballroom (from gold to shiny silver). For the first time we had live band in Clarion Upper on the 31st, it was the Hot Sugar Band, and once again The Challenge made it possible to donate money, and again we chose to give it to Mr Chazz Young.
2018 Our 14th year, we are only using Clarion Sign and Pelarsalen (external venue) as class venues from now on, class schedule was extended to accommodate less class rooms. For many years Alexandre has been our event photographer and it's been fantastic, this year we decided to try a new photographer and Sabina has done a great job! We had more vendors than ever this year and new emcee in Clarion ballroom was Peter Strom. Christoffer Johansson made his debut at The Snowball blues floor this year.
2019 Our 15th year anniversary! A successful year at Clarion Hotel Sign. This year we worked with a new photographer, David Paul, and he did a fantastic job capturing the event we love so much. We decided that the Balboa room too needed its own dedicated emcee and Taylor Stender was invited to take the stage. A job she performed greatly. In the main ballroom Maja Hellsten (for the first time) and Peter Strom shared the emceeing. Enric Piedro Swingtet from Valencia, Spain and Hornsgatan Jazz Orchestra from Stockholm, Sweden made their debut at The Snowball this year and the dance floor was on fire.
2020 A very different year due to Covid-19, The Snowball became a virtual event and all classes was pre-recorded. In the evenings we had band videos from previous year’s. It was bittersweet and how we missed the good old days when we took dancing, traveling and our swing dance family for granted!
2021 We were so close, but on December 22, to our great disappointment, we had to cancel The snowball due to new covid restrictions in Sweden. Behind the scenes, things also happened, Marie & Hasse both have new job challenges and on top of that they want to focus more on their family. Therefore they decided to .... The good news is that Kenneth and Helena quickly found new partners so 4 Swedes is still 4, Henric and Joanna Stillman joined and are now
2022 The Snowball 18 year! We look forward to share lots of great moments with you, and with all dancers from around the world during the event. We hope that the Snowball will offer everyone a memorable celebration of the New Year!
