After my post from Monday, I was amazed to find that that type occurrence is more common than most of us think, and I was glad to hear that people had ideas on how to help reduce the potential of incidents like that from happening again. There were posts of Facebook, Voy and this blog, and probably others.
I would like to keep the momentum we had on Monday and Tuesday going, and want to gather those ideas to present them to whatever dance governing bodies will listen. My goal is to capture them here, in one place, instead of having to go to multiple websites to find them, and hope to keep them to just the ideas (and not any background stories) so that readers can scan them quickly.
So, if you have thoughts on how to make feiseanna safer, please add your comments below. Please read any current comments and try not to repost the same idea, and make comments brief if possible. All comments will be moderated. Think outside the box, sure, having the girls cover themselves between dances is good, but creepers are really not the only thing to think about, what other potential threats do we need to consider? What steps can parents, schools, feis committees, venues, etc… take?
After we have sufficient feedback, we can organize the ideas for submission and I will be looking for ‘connected’ people to help get the ideas to the right people.
I am ‘relatively’ new to this, so I am counting on you to help make our children’s passion the safest it can be for all of us.
The 4th annual McMenamin Academy Feis was held on August 11th, 2013 at the Student Union at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Editors Note: This feis is run as a back-to-back with the Milwaukee Feis and that review covers a few sections for both feiseanna. In an effort not to duplicate content and get myself banned from search engines, this was the easiest way. Sorry for the extra trouble.
Venue Score: 9 (This also applies to the Milwaukee Feis for Saturday)
Judges – The girl child danced 3 times and was judged by 2 different judges. I generally think that can be done better, but in this case, the dances were spread farther apart and the judges were rotating frequently. Actually, TGC was going to be judged by a third judge, but was offered a break by the first judge who had scored her, so it ended up in the duplication. Good rotation.
Vendor Score: 6 (This also applies to the Milwaukee Feis for Saturday)
Results – FeisWorx was at it again and had reults electronically in about 15 minutes.
For this feis however, the results and the awards were in the same place and dancers would pick up the awards where they checked the results. These volunteers were not linked via laptop, and were using the results sheet that had been posted on the wall to keep track of who had picked up awards. I think this feis did a poor job in this area when compared to its counterpart on Saturday.
Even with the kickin’ FeisWorx results, this area needs improvement.
Results Score: 7
Feis Flow – Not as good as Saturday. We started at 9ish and had the last dance and were through by 2. This also included a quick 30 minute lunch. The dances were spread much farther apart and that really slowed down the day. The slower turn-around between dances usually helps judge rotation, but in this case it was so slow the judges started repeating.
Feis Flow Score: 7.5
Scoring
2 part scoring is in place, the feis score consisting of Judges, Music, Results and Flow, and then the overall WTF rating for all items including the venue, food and vendors.
Feis Score – 8.375 A good score, but this feis is still relatively young and they can take some pointers from the Milwaukee Feis.
And the WTF Rating – a 8.28, still pretty respectable
What did you think?
What did you think of the American Pride Feis 2015 (on a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being lowest)?
The 24th annual Milwaukee Feis was held on August 10th, 2013 at the Student Union at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Editors Note: This feis is run as a back-to-back with the McMenamin Academy Feis and this review will cover a few sections for both feiseanna.
Venue – This is the first time I have done the Milwaukee Feis, in fact, this is the first feis I have done in Wisconsin, and I enjoyed it.
There were 7 stages at the feis, divided into two levels of the Student Union. The stages were each in its own space with plenty of seating, but, in this reporters opinion, limited camping.
Stages 1 – 4 were on the top level and included both the OC (Stage 1) and PC (Stage 2) stages. If my estimates are correct, each of those stages were near, or maybe a bit over 30′ x 30′. Plenty of room for the dancers.
Stages 3 – 7 were smaller, but I did not see any smaller than 24′ x 24′. They all had great seating too, but Stage 4 (the one on the top floor off by itself) was a little awkward because it had lots of bigger comfy chairs that did not allow for viewing as close in. That stage also really only had traffic on one side that seemed congested, but not terrible.
Stages 5 – 7 were also set up well and appeared to be 24′ x 28′. Stages 5 and 6 had plenty of seats and room to move around the seating area. Stage 7 did also, but not quite as much free space as 5 and 6.
I did have some issues with stage condition. Stage 7 literally had bowed floorboards on one end that contributed to a number of slips and trips. I also saw several slips on Stage 5 and one resulted in a bad fall.
Camping was probably adequate, but I really did not look closely on the top level. Camp areas were well defined and the only place I noticed ‘obvious camping in the viewing seats’ was at Stage 4 where the comfy chairs were… go figure.
Registration, Results and Awards were on the lower level and all close to one another. From the lower level it was a quick trip up the adjacent stairs to the two stage floors. Elevators were also available (but were slow).
On street parking was available, and parking in the Student Union parking garage was available, but cost $6. It was free in the garage on Sunday.
Vendors were in the hallway on the way in to where Stages 5 – 7 were, and on the ground floor near registration. Vendor areas did not seem to congest flow to stages as is the issue in many feiseanna.
The only issue I could see somebody having with the venue is if they had dancers on both floors, otherwise I really enjoyed it.
Venue Score: 9 (This also applies to the McMenamin Feis for Sunday)
Judges – The girl child danced 3 times and was judged by 2 different judges. I generally think that can be done better, but the dances were very close together, literally one – three comps apart, so there was really not adequate time for a judge change. I do like feiseanna that go quick, so I can’t really ding them for this.
Judge Score: 8
Music – Every stage had their own musician and all stages were isolated enough where music bleed was no problem. I heard no complaints about the music, and saw none myself.
Musician Score: 10(This also applies to the McMenamin Feis for Sunday)
Food – A college student union, how do you think the food was? All kinds of variety, subs, wraps, pizza, stir fry, donuts and breakfast items, ice cream, coffee, and probably some I do not remember, plus a little college store to buy other snacks and drinks as well as free standing drink sales booths. The only issue I had with the food was that the options were very limited for breakfast, and having a gluten-free issue in the family, it made it hard to find something. This was not an issue at lunch and there were several gluten free options. Everything was pretty good, and all fairly reasonably priced.
Food Score: 9.5 (This also applies to the McMenamin Feis for Sunday)
Vendors – 2 shoe vendors (George from Balinvilla was there), a nice jewelry and accessory table, 2 tshirt guys, and some shirts and sweatshirts. Noticeably absent was hair and wig vendors which I do not believe I have seen happen before. You can see the complete vendor list here.
I have been to enough of these so that I recognize the vendors and they recognize me, but I met a ‘ray of sunshine’ on Saturday. Victor from Amerigo and Amerigo describes himself as a ‘passionate Spainiard’, I describe him as a humming bird on speed, but in a good way. If you ever have the chance to say hi to Victor, you really should, you will walk away with a smile and a new friend.
Other than me being a Victor fan, I was kind of disappointed in the vendor offerings.
Vendor Score: 6 (This also applies to the McMenamin Feis for Sunday)
Results – This is another feis where FeisWorx was kickin’ out the results, in some cases in about 10 minutes, and I did not have the need to go and look at the board. There was one larger comp where it took 20 -25 minutes to hit FeisWorx, but generally it was less than 15 minutes.
For the Milwaukee Feis, you would go to the “wall” and then turn around and walk a few feet to pick up your awards. Milwaukee was wired and the award volunteers could look up all the results for the dancer. I like that.
I was really impressed with the whole Results flow but I was tied into FeisWorx the whole time, so I am scoring based on my experience. Your mileage may vary.
Results Score: 9.5
Feis Flow – Excellent. We started at 11ish and had the last dance and were through by 1. This included a 30 minute lunch and they stuck to their word. They grouped the dances close together which really helped speed us through, but it seems like we always have at least 1 dance after lunch. This quick turn-around between dances does limit the judge rotation, but I really can’t have it both ways.
Feis Flow Score: 9
Scoring
Keeping the 2 part scoring in mind, the feis score consisting of Judges, Music, Results and Flow and then the overall WTF rating for all items including the venue, food and vendors.
Feis Score – 9.125 An excellent feis score
And the WTF Rating – a 8.71, very respectable overall
What did you think?
What did you think of the Glass City Inaugural Feis 2015 (on a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being lowest)?
At the McMenamin Academy Feis in Milwaukee this weekend, I witnessed a rather disturbing event that I thought would never happen at a feis. I suggest all parents and dancers read this, and share with anyone you think needs to read it…. I suggest all parents, with or without dancers.
*****
NOTE:Please see the comments below this post and on our FB page. This is not the only time ‘creepy’ has invaded our feiseanna.
I have added a second post to capture ideas to be presented to governing bodies on ways to make feiseanna safer. Please also visit that if you have suggestions.
*****
As I watched The Girl Child (TGC) practice in the hallway from inside the room where her stage was, I saw her and her Mom start this very intense discussion, so intense that it made me go out to find what was wrong. When I got to where they were, TGC said ‘that guy is filming us’ and as I looked over, I saw who she was talking about. My wife told me he had filmed a number of the girls who were practicing in the hall, as well as panned the whole area with his phone.
Not sure if he figured out we were talking about him, but he turned to leave, and my son and I followed him and watched him leave the building. I went to the awards table near the door he went out, told them what had happened, described the man and what he was wearing, and then I asked where the ‘Feis Boss’ was. They directed me to the office where I retold the story, wrote down a description of the man and his clothes, and I was informed security would be notified.
I returned to the stage and also told the feis volunteer who was working the hallway outside the stages what had happened. He had seen the man, but did not realize he was not associated with anyone at the feis. I told him I did not think he belonged, especially since TGC, as well as another dancer who was with her father, were both filmed, and we did not know him, and that when I had followed him, he had left the building.
And that was that, or so I thought.
As we were waiting for TGC to do her last dance of the day, I saw the ‘creepy man’ sitting in the back row watching the stage. I went into the hall to notify the volunteer I had spoken to earlier, and he was standing there with two security members, but had lost the man when he went to get security. I told him I knew where he was, and pointed him out to security. He was escorted out, and that was the last I heard of it.
Parents, you know why I am posting this, and some of the older dancers who might read this get it. If you are like me, you would never think something like this would happen at a feis, and I tried to go through non-creepy scenarios as to why this man was filming, but his actions were just not fitting any of these scenarios.
So parents(and teachers maybe), please talk to your dancers, and let them know that if they see anything that just does not seem right, to tell someone. Do not assume that since there are feis volunteers around, everything is fine. In this case, a volunteer saw the man, but was busy with his job and had no reason to think anything out of place. NEVER go up and confront the person, but tell a parent, teacher or a feis volunteer. It could be someone taking pictures or videos, or who seems to be hanging around but seems to be alone, or whom just seems out of place. Have the dancers use the buddy system, and not run around the venue alone. This typically happens without them being told, but reminding the dancers to do it, and telling them why, is probably a good idea.
Also remember, there are some people who are professionals, and they do these things, but are supposed to be there. A photographer who had photographed dancers at the Dayton Celtic Festival mentioned on our Facebook page that he might fit the description above. I actually saw this photographer working at the Dayton Festival, and reassured him that I could tell the difference between him and the ‘creepy-guy’ right away, and I am sure he, and anyone who is supposed to be at an event, would be ok if they were questioned about what they were doing there. Just don’t assume that everyone is always supposed to be there, because sometimes, like this weekend, they are not. A little paranoia is not necessarily a bad thing.
The 33rd annual Columbus Feis was held on August 3rd, 2013 at the Dublin Coffman High School in Dublin, Ohio.
Editors Note: This feis is run in conjunction with, and across the street from the Dublin Irish Fest, but alas, I did not make it to that this year.
Venue – This is the second time I have done the Columbus Feis at the high school, the first being a few years ago before I started posting feis reviews, and to be honest, its not one of my favorite venues.
There were 10 stages at the feis, split into 4 different areas of the high school. 4 stages in one gym, 4 in another gym, the PC stage in the cafeteria and the OC stage in the Performing Arts Center (aka the auditorium). The areas were wide-spread and could be a few minutes from each other if you happened to have dancers on several stages. Travel was complicated because of having to travel through crowded school hallways.
Stage size was OK, with the stages in the 2 gyms (numbered 1 – 8) being about 20 x 24. Actually, there were two large platforms, 20 x 48 in each gym, with each split, forming two stages, and having the dancers dance back to back. There was a few feet between the two large platforms where a musician sat, playing for all 4 stages. Although the stages were ok size, the whole setup seemed very cramped, especially since some of the comps were huge. The PC stage (#9) was in the cafeteria, and I think it was 24 x 24, but seemed kind of crammed into the end of the room. The OC stage was literally an auditorium stage, and was plenty big.
I only saw one fall, and I did not see any floor cleanup or mopping during the day, but I was not in a stage area during the lunch hour, so it may have occurred.
Chairs seemed adequate, with one gym area using the school bleachers. To be honest I was only in the other gym briefly, and it was crowded, and I did not notice the seating there. The PC stage probably needed more chairs because there was lots of standing viewers, but I don’t believe there was adequate room to put many more. The OC stage was fine seating wise.
Camping was in the cafeteria, in the student locker area, and in the hallways, with a little in the gyms on the sides of, and in, the bleachers.
Results and awards were in the hallway off the cafeteria where the student lockers were. It was cramped and hard to maneuver, and campers had pretty much blocked access from the sides so flow to/past the results had restricted flow.
Due to the Irish Fest, which is across the street from the high school, parking was painful. They had only one way in and out of the school parking lot and it was full by 845 when we arrived. I dropped the family off at the door and parked somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 mile away. There was no charge for parking however.
Vendors were in the hallway between areas, and even though the hallway was large, having vendors on both sides really cramped the flow.
The last note about the venue was the ‘climate’. It was really hot in the entire venue in the morning. I heard many complaints and did my fair share of perspiring. I would say by 11 they had it more under control, but the first few hours it was miserable.
Put all that together and I think….
Venue Score: 5
Judges – The girl child danced 3 times and was judged by 3 different judges. Can’t ask for better that that.
Judge Score: 10
Music – Stages 9 and 10 each had their own musicians, but stages 1 x 4, and 5 x 8 only had one musician for each of the 4 stages. The lack of stage-worthy areas in the venue probably causes the need to have those stages share their musicians, but it caused lots of delays and I saw stages come to complete halts numerous times. Basically, all the stages in the entire gym would have to have all their age comps finish all their reels (for example), before all the stages could start on the next dance. You see where I am going here.
Musician Score: 4
Food – There were a few vendor tables that had easy to grab and eat food like bananas, grapes, bagels, donuts, drinks etc… all reasonably priced. When lunch hit, other than the snack tables, there was one hamburger/hot dog/sandwich vendor, and people waited because the food ran out quickly. It wasn’t terrible though, and the prices were reasonable.
Food Score: 7.5
Vendors – 2 shoe vendors, a jewelry table, the tshirt guy, the ribbon lady, and lots of hair stuff. Just a small showing really. There was an Irish Festival going across the street however, but I did not make it to that.
Vendor Score: 7
Results – From the end of the dance to being posted on the wall I would say it took about 30 – 45 minutes. Not as good as others I have seen. There was also one dance where the judge and mislabeled the score sheet, and had I not asked about the status of that dance, it may still not be up on the wall. That result was closer to 90 minutes to get.
Columbus is a FeisWorx feis but I did not think to check results online during the day.
Awards were in a room right in the results hallway, and were very convenient to the results. They awards staff was ‘wired’ into the results room and were able to pull up the dancers number on laptops to see all the dancers results. That was done better than most feiseanna.
If the awards had not been wired, the slower turnaround time would have brought this score down.
Results Score: 7.5
Feis Flow – Not too bad. We started at 11ish and had the last dance at around 2. Huge comps and limited musicians slowed things down a lot. They grouped the dance types together to take advantage of fewer musicians, and kept the numbers of age groups on each stage fairly small which helped. A shorter lunch, which lasted a little over an hour, may have helped too.
Feis Flow Score: 7.5
Scoring
Remember, scoring now has 2 parts, the feis score consisting of Judges, Music, Results and Flow and then the overall WTF rating for all items including the venue, food and vendors.
Feis Score – 7.25 (which really benefited from the judge score, otherwise I would not have had it this high)
If you would like to help review feiseanna in your area, please let me know!
*NOTE: We don’t duplicate another sites content for ethical reasons mainly, but it is also bad for search engine rankings, which is why we are doing this link thing :)
The 2013 Rochester Feis was held on July 13th, 2013 at the Main Street Armory in Rochester, NY. I did not attend this feis, but a personal friend and a long time friend of WTF did, and she offered to share the info with us.
About 26 hours ago, the What The Feis Facebook page had about 86 Likes. We have been online for a little over 2 years, and I let natural word of mouth create our ‘fan base’.
Well, last night, Facebook What The Feis was listed on Crazy Irish Broads page (18 and over suggested please) and we blossomed to 106 Likes. I met my 100 Like goal, life was good.
At approximately 1415 (that’s 2:15PM for you civilians) my Like count started to climb, I mean, like refresh the page and there were 5 – 10 more likes kind of climb, and I found out that Pride of the Irish decided to jump onboard the WTF train. When you have nearly 82,000 Likes and you say ‘go like a page’, sh… um, stuff happens.
Since that time, about 7 hours, nearly 300 people(just 2 short at the 6 hour and 50 minute mark) have liked WTF on Facebook, and while I am keeping up with the likes and the comments, I am trying to figure the best way to answer and make the best of it all for FB and the WTF website. We have one new follow whose Mum was an Undefeated All-Ireland Champ in 1951… that is not something you just ‘like’ in passing, that is cool history that needs to be shared somehow.
So, thanks for the follows and if you think WTF is worthy, please share it. In the meantime, I am going to figure out the best way to share my new found followhood :)
aka – things are not always as they appear. This is the follow up article that I mentioned in my Dayton Feis review from last week.
I know I have mentioned many times that I have not run a feis, and have no idea what goes on behind the scenes, but for the Dayton Feis, I had the privilege of working the morning shift in the results tabulation room. This was a great opportunity, one of those paradigm shifting things (if you are a Stephen Covey fan), that made me realize things are not always as they seem.
The room had 5 laptops setup for entries and it seems at least 3 of them were manned at any time. They had all been checked and rechecked, and the people who had done all the setup(fewer people than I assumed by the way) were ready. We were given an overview of the application since many of the volunteers had not worked results before. We were also given the contingency plan in case anything hit the fan, and that was to write out the results on paper, and send them to the results board. There was an ‘in’ basket were envelopes from the dance area came in, and an ‘out’ basket were results that had been entered and printed went, bound for the awards area to be posted for viewing.
As you can imagine, things started slowly. As envelopes started trickling in, ‘it’ hit the fan. As results were being entered, the application would shut down unexpectedly. As we started writing out the results to be posted, one of the Feis people was on the phone with tech support almost immediately, and in a relatively short amount of time, had a work around for the issue. Soon, all the laptops were churning out results pages.
At the laptops, there was a reader and an input person, and considering I am a geek in real life, I got to input results. The application was relatively easy to use, but I did have some usability issues with it, but I digress, as that has nothing to do with the feis or the people who ran it. The tag team concept worked pretty well, and there were often lags where we were waiting for envelopes to come in. There were also times when there were some waiting to be recorded, but I would say in general, from hitting the ‘in’ box to hitting the ‘out’ box, was generally less than 15 minutes.
This is where I had my paradigm shift, and probably the part where you are saying, ’15 minutes!? That is pretty darn good. Why so long to the boards?’
I had the same question. IMHO, I think there was a lag with the runners trying to keep up with things. Also, I cannot speak to the process at awards where the results went, were filed appropriately, and then posted, but can see where that could add to any apparent ‘lag’.
So, I wanted to compliment the Dayton Feis Results organizers on running results, no matter what my comments about the rest of the feis may have been, this part was done extremely well.
I guess my other point is, next time I say to myself or fellow feis goers, ‘I wonder what the hell the problem is in the results room’ I will stop and remember everything that goes into getting a result from the Judge, all the way to the wall.
In the interest of full disclosure – if you read my review, you know the girl child danced at Dayton and although I saw the score sheets from the judges for two of her dances, I did not enter the results for either of them into the system.
The 41st annual Dayton Feis was held on June 22nd, 2013 at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio.
Venue – This is the second time I have done the Dayton Feis at Sinclair. If you are curious here is the review for last year. I don’t think the venue is bad, but I think it has a few limitations.
The feis was split into three floors of the building. The competitions held on the lowest level in an indoor track and field building, a second floor that had a cafeteria, the tabulation room and where the OC/PC presentations were done, and the top level where results were posted and awards were presented. Lots of stairs so not the best for people with limited mobility, but there were elevators available.
There were six stages, which in general were good sizes. The smallest was 24 x 20 and the largest was 32 x 32 (one of the champ stages). While the smaller stage is bigger than some I have seen, the issue with this one is that it was half of a joined stage (stages 5 & 6) that were split down the middle by a piece of tape. Last year I was OK with that, but I am less of a fan this year, especially with the size of some of the comps on those stages. These stages were sharing a musician like last year, but I do feel there was enough room to separate these two, add a little more size and still share the musician.
I saw multiple slips and falls and could see ‘stuff’ on one of the champ stages. Couldn’t tell if it was hair pins, or whatever, but it was obvious. I did not see any floor cleanup or mopping during the day, not saying there was none, but I saw none.
Chairs seemed adequate, a bit heavy for OC/PC but that seems to be the norm. There were lots of standing viewers.
Camping in the dance area was very limited, but the second level had a lot more area available, just not as convenient.
As mentioned, results and awards were on the third floor, and as long as you were done dancing, that was cool, you could just wait upstairs (which is also where you exited the building). Otherwise, having them two floors up caused a lot of walking and stairs during the day.
Parking was plentiful, pretty close, and only $2.
Vendors were at one end of the room, and there were a lot more than last year. I thought they were easy to get to, and separated nicely from the stages.
Venue Score: 8 Would have been better with more camping in the competition area and if everything was on the same floor, otherwise, really not that bad.
Judges – The girl child danced 4 times and was judged by 4 different judges. As good as it gets in my opinion.
Judge Score: 10
Music – All stages except 5 & 6 had their own musician. 5 & 6 shared one, but that really did not seem to be too much of an issue. I did witness one rather long stoppage when dancers were lined up on both stages, and they just milled about waiting for the musician to return.
Maybe my suggestion of separating stages 5 & 6 will be seen and they can add on another musician next year. :)
Musician Score: 7.5
Food – Using the college concession worked to the feis advantage. Food was plentiful, had some variety and was priced for college students. There were also healthy options like fruit cups and hummus and chips in addition to pizza etc…
Food Score: 9.5
Vendors – A big improvement over last year! George the shoe guy had his table, and the ribbon key chain lady, and the shortbread guy (if you are from this area, you probably know these people), and the wig people, and the t shirt table that had a nice variety of add-ons for the t-shirts. In addition though, there were several jewelry tables, and several vendors with Irish items like hats, scarves, shirts, nic nacs etc… A nice browsing/shopping experience.
Vendor Score: 9.5
Results – For reasons I will explain in another post this week, I thought the results were handled pretty well. The ones that I checked were up on the board within 30 minutes.
Dayton is an eFeis feis so electronic results were not available right away like some are on FeisWorx, and the feis was not tweeting or otherwise posting results electronically
Awards were on the same floor with the results, and they had a variety of awards available for Prizewinner 1st place winners.
If there were any negatives, it would be that the results needed to be posted in a more organized fashion. They were just posted as they came out and there was no order to them. IMHO, each comp should have been grouped together and posted in the same area on the board so all results for that comp could be easily viewed.
Results Score: 8
Feis Flow – Not too bad. We started at 10ish and had the last dance at around 3. Huge comps and lots of them slowed everything down a little, but without adding more stages, I don’t know how that could have been better. Our day would have been longer but they moved a few of the last dances to another stage to help get them get done earlier. The stages moved along pretty well I thought.
I did hear complaints that the lunch took to long with someone saying an hour and a half, but I was trying to sell a dress, eat some pizza and find my daughter, so I really did not notice.
Feis Flow Score: 7.5
Scoring
Remember, scoring now has 2 parts, the feis score consisting of Judges, Music, Results and Flow and then the overall WTF rating for all items including the venue, food and vendors.
Feis Score – 8.25
And the WTF Rating – a 8.57. Great job Dayton!
Remember to look for a special Dayton Feis 2013 post coming later this week.
What did you think?
What did you think of the Big Apple Feis 2015, (on a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being lowest)?Big Apple Feis
The 4th annual 
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The 24th annual 