Playing Dance Weekends Without Taking PTO
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When I first started playing dance weekends I would fly Friday and Monday, and I quickly realized that if I took two vacation days for each I'd run out of vacation. [1] The typical dance weekend schedule, however, is Friday evening, all day Saturday, and Sunday until early afternoon: if you live near an airport with a lot of direct flights, it's possible to do this without missing any work!
The pattern I've used for most dance weekends is:
- Fly Thursday evening, after work.
- Work remotely Friday.
- Play the weekend Friday-Sunday.
- Fly home Sunday night.
This approach does depend on a few things:
- Having a job where I can do the occasional Friday remote.
- Living somewhere with a lot of direct flights.
- For West Coast gigs, being able to sleep well enough on a plane home that I can work Monday.
I'll also work all day Friday from my bed, and not interact with anyone until dinner. [2] This maintains my focus, and while I couldn't do this all the time it's good for some kinds of work.
Dance weekends are generally pretty happy to have performers come in a day early, and host Thursday night: it reduces the risk that travel delays derail the weekend. I've had relatively few issues however: I've flown to ~40 dance weekends, and I've lost days only twice (both flying out, one day each time).
For a while I stopped working remotely on the Friday, because I was bringing my kids to weekends and it's fun to spend Friday exploring a new place. More recently I've gone back to doing this about half the time, as work has become more urgent.
[1] When the Free Raisins were at their most popular, 2014-2015, we played eight dance weekends both years. In 2025 I played ten, split across two bands (4 Free Raisins, 6 Kingfisher). This year has been lighter, with five Kingfisher and no Free Raisins.
[2] Another helpful factor for me is that as long as I don't "get up" (shower, talk to people in person, eat breakfast) I don't get hungry and can just work from bed all day.