Saturday, was ‘National Tango Day’. There was going to be tango in the streets on the Avenida De Mayo (one of the major downtown streets). That’s a 20 minute walk from our apartment – we couldn’t miss this.

The street had been blocked off for about 10 blocks. There were three major bandstands, one at each end and one in the middle, each with a schedule of performers. There were professional dancers.

And there were 40,000 Portenos (residents of Buenos Aires) dancing in the street.

Dancing, listening to the orchestras, drinking a coffee in one of the cafes, watching, partying. It was wall-to-wall people – all ages – having a great time.

I was cursing for having forgotten my camera. I saw someone with a nice camera, and asked if he would email me a shot of people dancing in the street. Well, I got lucky – he was Diego Ivo Piacenza, and these are his pictures. They are fantastic, and there are more of them at http://www.diegopiacenza.com/galnov.php?gal=113 . (Also, prints are for sale – and I’ll happily deliver to Toronto if you order one.)

The tango orchestras harked back to an earlier era. Our experience was the clubs and cafe’s with live music – mostly ‘electronic tango’, with the musicians using the tango form of the jazz trio – wired accodian, electric keyboard, and bass.

Tonight was music from an earlier era. The orchestras were 8-10 players, with formal dress and very traditional acoustic instruments – multiple accordions, grand pianos, violins and cellos. They played the old music – songs like ‘Cambalache’ and ‘Por una Cabeza’ – from the Golden Age of tango.

There were microphones and speakers because of the venue, but you could imagine these orchestras in an old theater or ballroom, with just their acoustic power to reach the back of the halls.

This was a weekend, but every night in Buenos Aires seems to have some kind of street party. Two days later, there was a book festival that closed a different major street, and then a homage to Carlos Gardel (the greatest of the Golden Age tango singers – the Frank Sinatra of Latin America). This city never sleeps.