Michigan (Muskegon) Feis Review

Michigan Feis was held on September 15, 2012 at Muskegon Catholic Central High School, Muskegon, MI.

Venue – Although spread out a little, the Muskegon Catholic Central High School was a pretty good feis venue.

Four stages spread throughout the school provided plenty of room for dancers and viewers. I spent most of my time in the gym where stages 3 and 4 were, and they were good size with lots of room between. There seemed to be plenty of seating in the bleachers for parents and friends. Another of the stages was in the auditorium and was well lit and had plenty of seating. Afraid I did not look at the 4th stage.

Camping spots were limited but everyone seemed to find a spot and there was a ‘less crowded’ feel to the venue then other recent ones.

Parking was ok, but it filled up quickly and things got a little tight. We were in at 930 and found a spot on the outer edges. I assume as the early crowd started rolling out, more and more spots opened up a little later in the morning.

One WTF Fan (well, reader anyway) who I saw at the feis did comment about limited bathrooms, and I said I would mention it. There were some close to the stage we were on, so I had no complaints.

Venue Score: 8

Judges – My daughter danced four dances and was judged by two different judges, one for her first three dances. Sorry, that is a poor rotation.

I mentioned it to feis volunteers and it got back to the feis coordinator immediately and she was very proactive getting it resolved asap, but I still feel the rotation was not well planned. The judges on the stage we were on rotated once in the morning session, and it was before we got to the stage, so I would have to say many girls were judged by the same judge for all their dances. Between me mentioning it, and the lunch break, we did get a different judge for the last dance.

Judge Score: 3

Music – Each stage had their own musicians, always good. Our stage musician did take several breaks. Since I have become use to those huge bladder judges the last few feises, who hardly take breaks,  I have to knock the score down a little for this one.

Musician Score: 8

Food – Cafeteria food, pizza, sandwiches, donuts, candy, soda, etc… all reasonably priced. My son commented that the pizza didn’t look good but tasted great, so, no complaints. Could have used a little more variety (especially since you had an Irish Festival just down the street… hint, hint).

Food Score: 7.5

Vendors – A feis tshirt guy, and George the shoe guy… always there. They also had a few other vendors, nothing awesome. I have to say though, with all the vendors at the Music Festival, having any of them show up at the feis is probably most difficult.

Vendor Score: 7

Results – Well done, but with a twist. They were posted a bit slowly, but it seemed that the awards table had them much faster. DD placed in an event and after it was posted, she went to get the award, and they gave her another award for a dance she placed in only minutes earlier, whose results had not been posted yet. That was pretty quick.

The other big kudo is that they passed out summarized sheets with all results, and judges comments, shortly after the dancers last dance. I very seldom see that.

Overall great, but not near perfect because of the slower postings.

Results Score: 9

Feis Flow – I thought this feis was well run. They kept the age group dances fairly close together, which unfortunately impacted on judging a little (see slow rotation note), and they had a lunch break that went a bit long, but otherwise, great job.

Feis Flow Score: 9

And the WTF Rating – not bad with a WTF Rating is 7.36.