Our commitments
Bachata Geneva Festival 2026. Four days at Palexpo, Geneva, from 8 to 12 October 2026, and what the festival owes the city that hosts it.
The Bachata Geneva Festival is organised by Bachata Geneva, a non-profit association registered in Geneva. Four days at Palexpo, dancers from eighty countries, and a production that is built and taken down inside a single week.
This page is the honest version of what that costs and what it returns. It lists what we already do, what the festival brings back to the canton, and, at the end, the things we have not solved for 2026. We would rather hand a partner a document with an open list at the bottom than one that claims more than we can show.
Getting here, and moving around
Palexpo sits on the Geneva public transport network, next to the airport and the station. Almost nobody needs a car to attend.
Reachable without a car
Palexpo is served directly by Geneva public transport and is minutes from Geneva Airport and Genève-Aéroport station. Participants arriving by plane or train reach the venue on public transport.
Free public transport for every hotel guest
Guests staying in a Geneva hotel receive the Geneva Transport Card for the length of their stay, covering public transport across the canton at no cost. Around three quarters of our participants sleep in Geneva hotels.
A welcome counter at the airport
We hold a welcome desk at Geneva Airport on 8 and 9 October, the two main arrival days, so that arriving participants are pointed at the train and the bus rather than at the taxi rank.
One site, four days
Workshops, shows, competitions and parties all take place inside Palexpo. There is no travel between venues during the festival, for the public or for the production.
Waste and reuse
The cheapest waste is the material we do not buy twice. Signage, decoration and cups are all treated as multi-year assets.
Reusable cups, no single-use plastic
Drinks are served in reusable cups on a deposit system. Geneva has prohibited single-use plastic tableware at events since 2025 and we operate accordingly.
Signage built to come back
Festival signage is produced and stored to be reused from one edition to the next instead of reprinted every year. Panels avoid dated wording wherever the message allows it.
Decoration kept, not discarded
Decoration is bought or built as stock to be stored and reused across editions, not as single-use set dressing.
Merchandise sized on real demand
Print runs and size curves are set from the previous edition’s actual sales register rather than from a guess, so we do not produce stock that will never be sold.
Food and drink
Four days of dancing is four days of eating on site. What is on offer is a choice we make when we select the vendors.
A vegetarian option at every outlet
Every food vendor on site, food trucks included, offers at least one vegetarian option. It is a condition of being on the plan, not a preference we hope for.
People and conduct
A partner dance festival lives or dies on how safe the floor feels. That is written down, and it is binding.
A code of conduct every ticket holder accepts
Zero tolerance for harassment, discrimination or intimidation, on or off the dance floor. Always ask before dancing and respect a no, which can be withdrawn at any moment during a dance. Every ticket holder accepts this at purchase, and we can refuse entry to or remove anyone who breaches it, without refund. Reports go to any member of staff or to info@bachatagenevafestival.com.
Eighty nations in one hall
The festival exists to put dancers from 80 countries in the same room for four days. 107 artists and 271 active ambassadors around the world carry it. Internationality is the format, not a diversity statement bolted on afterwards.
150 volunteers
One hundred and fifty volunteers run the front of house, the welcome desks and the floors, and receive festival access in exchange for their shifts.
What the festival brings to the canton
The festival is a four-day influx of international visitors into Geneva in October, outside the congress season. The figures below are modelled from booking and registration data and detailed in the partner dossier.
CHF 647,100 in accommodation and CHF 715,680 spent outside the hotels, in restaurants, shops and transport across the canton.
What we have not solved
Every item below is a real gap in the 2026 edition. We publish them so the rest of this page can be read at face value.
We do not measure our carbon footprint
No footprint has been calculated for any edition to date. Eighty nations means most participants fly to Geneva, and air travel will be the largest part of that footprint by a wide margin, so we make no claim about it today. We intend to measure the 2027 edition and to publish the result before making any environmental performance claim.
There are no free drinking water points on site
Water is sold at the bars. We have not secured free water points inside Palexpo for 2026.
No dedicated waste sorting partner in the public areas
Waste is handled under Palexpo’s site arrangements. We have not contracted a sorting operator of our own, and we do not report sorting rates.
No local sourcing label for food and drink
Our food and beverage suppliers are not selected against a regional label such as Genève Région Terre Avenir. Local sourcing is an intention, not a criterion we currently apply.
No offsetting, and no neutrality claim
We do not buy carbon offsets and we do not describe the festival as carbon neutral, climate neutral or green. We would rather measure first.
Figures dated 12 August 2026. Participant counts for 2026 are projections built from ticket sales, artist and competitor registrations, ambassadors and volunteers. Room nights and destination value are modelled, with the methodology set out in the partner dossier.
Questions on any figure or commitment on this page: info@bachatagenevafestival.com. The full code of conduct sits in our attendance terms.