Bringing a Portable Dance Floor to Sturgeon Bay
(The Back Story)

After learning that Kress Pavilion would be unavailable for DCFF 2025, Paul Collins (DCFF Director) reached out to the folks at MUSE Sturgeon Bay, and we agreed that MUSE would be a good venue for DCFF.

However, the Festival would need to rent a portable dance floor to cover the MUSE main hall’s concrete base floor in order to ensure a greater and healthier dance experience.

When Paul looked into renting portable dance floors, he found that a 3-day rental from an event management company would cost over $7,000. On the other hand, it would cost just over $10,000 to purchase the same floor from the manufacturer for $10,000 - a significantly more cost-effective investment. Moreover, the floor could be used for many other types of events in the future.

Paul Collins and Janelle Peotter (Sturgeon Bay native, musician, dancer and DCFF supporter) accepted the challenge of raising funds to acquire a portable dance floor for MUSE. Paul and Janelle reached out to select members of their networks within the International Folk Dance community and the Sturgeon Bay patron-of-the-arts community to raise over $10,000 in just six weeks! Janelle negotiated a major contribution from the closed Scoil Roe Dennehy - Irish Dance School Fund.

In May 2025, MUSE was able to purchase a SnapLock Portable Dance Floor consisting of 144 floor panels (3' x 3' each), edge-trim, and 3 storage carts.

In the fall of 2025, Paul learned that MUSE would be unavailable for DCFF 2026.

In the first quarter of 2026 (with significant advice and support from friends and associates), Paul was successful in negotiating with MUSE to donate the Portable Dance Floor to Sturgeon Bay High School which will be the host of the 2026 Door County Folk Festival. Paul presented MUSE with a proposal, that would accomplish several objectives and that would provide win-win-win outcomes for all three parties involved:

• Benefits for Door County Folk Festival:
  • To secure access to the portable dance floor for upcoming and future events
  • To fulfill commitments to donors by providing more dance opportunities in Sturgeon Bay
  • To facilitate the transfer of a valuable asset from MUSE to the Sturgeon Bay School District
• Benefits for Sturgeon Bay School District:
  • To obtain a high-value portable dance floor asset at no cost
  • To enhance the district’s ability to support more community dance programming
  • To enable the district to rent to groups whose activities might damage their gym floors
• Benefits for MUSE Sturgeon Bay:
  • To reclaim significant amounts of space in the backstage storage area
  • To be relieved from having to provide storage and care for a seldom used asset
  • To retain access to the portable dance floor when needed

Click the links below to see more about this very interesting story.

Paul Collins - DCFF