Banner raids are a tongue-in-cheek ritual used to promote the visitation of square dance clubs with each other. The Banner itself in this context is usually a rectangular cloth replica of the club’s parade banner (see Hayloft Steppers banner above)

A banner is won or Stolen when members of one club visit another and the visited club will award their banner. A banner is then retrieved or Recovered when the visited club likewise visits the visiting club.

Rules differ slightly between regions but here are the May 29,2006 WACA Requirements (our region)

1. Any WACA club attending another club's dance with four or more graduate couples wearing club badges is eligible to capture that club's banner at one or two separate dances.

2. If two or more WACA clubs attend another WACA club dance with at least four graduate couples wearing club badges, each club's name will be placed in a container and the club drawn will capture the banner.

3. To retrieve your banner from another WACA club, you must visit the dance with at least four graduate couples wearing club badges at one or two separate dances.

4. To retrieve your banner and be eligible to capture the host club's banner, you must attend the dance with eight graduate couples wearing club badges (four couples to retrieve your banner and four couples to capture the host club's banner).

5. No club can capture more than one banner on a given night within the WACA organization.

6. If a club's travel banner is not available when you visit a club, the president will ensure that you will get the banner when they retrieve it or they will return the visit as soon as possible.

1. To qualify to have the WACA card signed, the visiting club is required to attend a dance with four couples or one square.

2. If anyone, two or three couples attend a dance the treasurer of the host club will keep an unsigned WACA card with a note of the number of couples attending from the visiting club. The treasurer will hold this card until a total of four couples have visited at which time the card will be signed and given to the Visiting club.

The Hayloft Steppers, as one of the most widely traveled clubs in the area, fully supports this program. Some of the banners we now hold are the Fairs ‘N Squares, Manchester SDC,  Monadnock Squares and the Windham Whirlers.  The clubs that have recently stolen our banner are the Sutton County Squares  and the Montachusett Twirlers.

See maps and flyers  from some of the clubs we have visited