Case study

Paper Moon Swing Festival

Registration and personalised schedules for a multi-level dance festival.

A festival with many different journeys

Paper Moon Swing Festival brought dancers, teachers and guests together in Heidelberg for a weekend of classes, talks, live music and social dancing.

Different levels, roles and ticket types meant that not everyone needed the same programme.

Registration connected to the programme

Cothena connected registration with the festival schedule, so a booking could determine which programme a participant received.

Teachers and talent had their own tailored views, while participants saw the activities relevant to what they had booked.

The organising team managed one connected programme instead of maintaining separate schedule versions for every group.

The social dance floor at Paper Moon: a crowded hall of couples dancing under string lights, with the band playing on a blue-lit stage beneath the festival's paper-moon backdrop. — Many thanks to our talented photographers Claudia Köhler and Felix Nordino Chibuane for capturing these beautiful moments ✨

Built for dance-festival registration

Cothena has since developed further around a challenge that is especially common in partner-dance events: keeping registration groups balanced.

Automatic ratio control

Festivals can define balancing rules between groups such as leaders and followers within a particular level. When another booking would push the balance outside the organiser's rule, Cothena can switch that registration to a waitlist instead of confirming it immediately. As the balance changes, availability can open again without the registration team manually comparing lists.

Flexible balancing rules

The rules are not limited to one fixed leader-to-follower setup. Organisers can define the groups, products and ratios that matter to their event, making the same system useful for different levels, ticket types and registration models.

Smart waitlists

When a booking cannot currently be accepted, the participant can move into a managed waitlist and receive the next suitable place when capacity or balance becomes available.

Invoices and payments

Registration can also stay connected to invoicing and payment status, so bookings, payments, refunds and offline payments do not need to be tracked separately.

What Cothena supports for dance festivals

Registration by level, role or ticket type
Personalised participant schedules
Teacher and talent schedules
Configurable ratio rules
Automatic waitlisting when a balance rule is reached
Managed waitlist offers
Invoice and payment tracking
Booking confirmations and reminders
Mobile access to personal schedules
Event cloning for future editions

Running a dance festival?

Cothena keeps registration, balancing rules and personal schedules connected — so your team spends less time reconciling lists and more time running the festival.

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