Every Wednesday night at the Moscow Moose Lodge, dancers gather for a few hours of swinging, stomping, moving and grooving to country music. 

Palouse Country Swing Night started there about three years ago, manager Kevin Repp said. Before the Moose Lodge, they danced at CJ’s Nightclub and before that they were at Beach Nightclub.

“There just wasn’t anything else in town,” Repp said.

When they first started dancing at Moose Lodge, Repp said they saw between 10 and 30 dancers each week. Now they regularly have upward of 60.

The group partnered with a WSU group for a food drive once and had about 200 participants that night, said Loren Jenkins, a student at the University of Idaho, who has been involved with the group for about a year and a half.

Jenkins said experienced members in the group will dance with beginners in order to teach them. The group offered lessons last year, but they did not receive a lot of attention, he said.

Mostly college students attend the dances but there are also some high schoolers and locals, Repp said.

“You can’t find a place in this area that’s more wholesome fun,” Jenkins said. “You just go out and enjoy no matter the age or experience level you have.”

Repp said they continue dancing on Wednesday nights because it is a unique experience that they want to keep around for the next generation.

“It’s a different atmosphere and different experience, and it’s something that I would say is very unique to the Moscow-Pullman region,” Repp said. “I’ve danced everywhere in lots of different states and I have yet to find somewhere that actually has the same kind of atmosphere and the same kind of friendliness and the same memories associated with it.”

Dancing starts at 9 p.m. Wednesdays and ends at midnight. Entry costs $5.

The Moose Lodge is located at 210 N. Main St. in Moscow.