Feis Na Tara, Grades 2015 Feis Review

e0a4210058da1cb28f5b092e3b8bce4dThe, possibly, 20th anniversary Feis Na Tara was held February 27-28, 2015. The feis was held at the Marriott Atlanta Airport. This feis holds competitions on Friday night and all day Saturday. The Devil Went Down to Georgia treble reel is a popular event for all ages. These are held on Friday night. This year, the proceeds went to the Wounded Warrior fund. This feis also offers competitions in Celtic Art, Music, Vocals, Gaelic, and Baking. These are in addition to the grades, championships, and figure competitions.

If the stars fell on Alabama, then the stardust fell on Georgia. Or at least the glitter. This feis is an excellent example of the shiny, glittery, happy feis world of the Southern Region. This was a very shiny feis. This was seen in the many different crystal awards on Friday night to the lovely crystal prizes awarded to the champs. Also, the Southern Region has a reputation for bling. From the grades to the champs, there were many shiny, happy dancers. (Some of them even held hands.)

Venue

If the devil really did go down to this Georgia feis, he certainly did not bring the heat! This proved to be a cold venue. It is also hotel feis. Some readers may already know that the Wilkes family doesn’t particularly care for those. This feis is a good example of why. Crowded rooms, tight hallways, odd lighting, and many different rooms to navigate. Southern hotel feisanna also tend to become Sardine Can Feisanna. At least in the Grades room, this was no exception. You could also have called the grades stages Sardine Can Competitions. (See also Stages)
The hotel rooms were reasonably priced. While we did not hear the airplanes, we did hear many of our neighbors. The hotel was packed. So, while Mr. WTFeis had a quiet experience, our hallway was much noisier. Thankfully, we were able to play classical music to soothe a couple of our darlings to sleep. By the time the youngest darlings were asleep, the hallway and adjacent room noise had settled down to a dull roar.

5 out of 10

Parking

Again, I am very glad to know that Mr. WTFeis was able to secure the most inexpensive parking option. When we arrived, self parking was no longer an option for hotel guests. So, Ash Wilkes paid the $20 valet fee. Since there are no nearby restaurants or shops, we did not have extra expenses with tips to get the car in or out.

4 out of 10

Stages

Southern Sardine Can Stages. Perhaps the Southern Sausage Stages would be more appropriate. Either way, the grades stages were ran like a conveyor belt. They packed them into their competition lines. Then, they were slid across the 3 stages for the soft shoe competitions. It was obvious that this method was confusing to the beginners. There were several missed starts, misunderstandings, and re-dances in the beginners competitions. The older, experienced grades dancers handled this schedule very well. My guess is that many of them had experienced it before. This is our 2nd year at the grades stage of this feis. So, while we knew what to expect, our youngest little darling was extremely confused. They were also very tired at the end of their dances.

The stages were about 2″ off the ground. Treble Koted plywood, screwed onto the supports. The crowds on the stages and the crowds in the grades room made viewing difficult. Also, the chairs go to the early attendees. You cannot arrive at 7:55am and expect to find a seat in the grades room. Also, if you plan to attend the Peach State Feis, the same is also true. Most of the chairs were filled by 7:30am, with the remainders being completely taken by 7:45am.

4 out of 10

Feis Flow

The feis volunteers are truly amazing at this feis. The Mulligan School is relatively small. But, they know how to hold a big feis. There is also much love and appreciation between the school TCRG and the families of the school. This was shown in the opening ceremony of the feis. Bag pipes, instrumental trio, banners, and presentations showed how much the members of the school enjoy the journey of Irish Dance.

The stage monitors were extremely helpful and polite. They did everything in their power to help everyone in attendance enjoy the feis. I did not see the radios used at some other events. But, they seemed to be well informed and connected.

Having figures on only 2 stages caused the feis to start S.L.O.W.L.Y on all counts. Also, please see Music and Stages. Those challenges also caused the grades stages to run less than efficiently. My suggestion would be to hold the 8 hands on the champs stage. The 2, 3, and 4 hands could continue to be held on the grades stages. All of the 8 hands were older dancers. Many of them were upper level grades and champ level dancers. The rooms at this venue are also fairly close together. So, it would free up the grades stages more quickly. These ran slowly based on several other factors. It would not increase the amount of time spent waiting in the Champs room. It may decrease it.

5 out of 10

Music

Friday night Adult and Treble Reel competitions were done with canned music. Saturday, the grades stages were accompanied by a violinist. While talented, it was difficult for one light stringed instrument to accompany 3 stages. Also, a delay on one stage created holds on the other stages. Some of the competitions had 20 or more dancers. Others held only a handful. The Wilkes family certainly missed hearing the blessed accordion. If a violin is to be the instrument of choice next year, I would recommend a duet. With a room and stages in their current set up, the back beat/bass notes are lost. An additional instrument would assist in keeping those lower notes heard. These are especially important, in our opinion, in the treble jigs and hornpipes.

4 out of 10

Judges

There is one distinct benefit to the conveyor belt style stage system. Guaranteed judge rotation. While this is, in part determined by the number of competitions, all of our darlings had at least 3 different judges for their competitions. Not the perfect different judge for each dance scenario. But, it is much better than the last two feisanna we have attended, with a single judge for all competitions.

8 out of 10

Social Media

This is not a social media feis. It does not have a Facebook page. They have received a 2 instead of a 0, because they are excellent in returning phone calls and emails. There is certainly potential for this to become a more Social Media friendly feis. Especially with several of their school champs potentially handling those posts/announcements.

2 out of 10

Feis Food

As there were a couple of coffee stands available, Ash Wilkes was able to have his pre Feis coffee. He also had his mid Feis coffee. And his post Feis coffee. Also, the lines were not long at the hotel Sbux. So, from that stand point alone, it was an excellent feis food venue. We did not wait in the lines at the venue food counters. Our family only purchased the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Service was attentive and polite. The prices were in line with what we have experienced in our travels. We did NOT eat dinner or purchase drinks. So, please see the Champs Review for that information.

10 out of 10

Vendors

The Wilkes family were most pleased to see Unique Engraving at this feis. Not only did the company create lovely trophies for the feis. They also brought their engraving machines, medal stands, and medal ribbon selection. Feis Na Tara boasts of more than a dozen perpetual trophies. They also award several wooden plaques to different competitions. All of these can be engraved at the feis by Unique Engraving.

There were also

  • Feis shirts
  • Dance shoes/socks
  • Hair bobs/wigs/bling
  • Züca sales and accessories
  • European candies/snacks/drinks

10 out of 10

Awards

It is a somewhat expected regional occurrence to receive the medal without the neck ribbon. King O Sullivan, Feis Na Tara, Little Rock, and River Valley Feis all give medals without ribbons. Unique Engraving is usually present at these feisanna. They sell many different types/colors of medal ribbons and holders. Some families anticipate this occurrence, and bring their own medal ribbons from home.

That being said, the trophies were nicer this year, than in years past. Prizewinner First Place received a 12″ trophy and a small crystal gem. Remaining Prizewinner placements also received trophies. Novice, and below, received medals. We saw several families purchasing medal stands, to turn their awards into trophies. In the treble reels, everyone received a crystal gift, before the awards placements were announced. The Wilkes family appreciates these participation gifts. There are several children in the Southern Region who feis with medical challenges. These children do not often place as frequently in their dances as their more healthy competitors. Several of these families are friends of ours. A few of them enter the extra competitions, in order for those medically challenged dancers have an opportunity to shine. So, while others may speak derisively against such things, the Wilkes family applauds them!

10 out of 10

Thank you, Feis Na Tara, for ensuring that all participants have the opportunity to dance their best and take home a prize. The Wilkes family enjoyed this feis. We hope to return next year.

Overall Score – 6 out of 10

What did you think?

What did you think of the Feis Na Tara, Grades 2015, (on a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being lowest)?

  • 10 (50%, 1 Votes)
  • 6 (50%, 1 Votes)
  • 3 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 4 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 5 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 2 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 7 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 8 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 9 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 1 (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 2

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Feis Na Tara, Champs 2015 Feis Review

e0a4210058da1cb28f5b092e3b8bce4dThe 20th Annual Feis Na Tara was held on Friday & Saturday, February 27th & 28th 2015 by the Mulligan School of Irish Step Dance and the Tara Dance Company, at the Marriot Atlanta Airport, in Atlanta, Georgia. This was our first trip to this feis.

I am attempting to make this a Champs review, in the hopes another reviewer who also attended will be providing a Grades Review (no pressure), but I have included some Grades notes below, just in case :)

Venue

A hotel feis, if you guys have followed for a while, you probably know how I feel about hotel feiseanna. Generally, I am not a fan, but truth be told, this one wasn’t that bad for the reasons that usually irritate me about hotel feiseanna.

There were three rooms used to house all the feis-tivities, the PC/OC stage area, the Grades stage area, and the Results/Awards/Used Dress area. All were very close to each other for those folks who had to be in two places at once :)

Temperature wise, the rooms ranged from comfortable to ‘do you want to build a snowman’. Mrs WTF had to go get a sweater for the Awards room.

Vendors were set up in the hallways, which is usually where I have issue, but this wasn’t bad. The hallways were wide enough to house the vendors and still have enough room for a flow of people. It helped that the vendors were set up on the way into the the awards and grades rooms, so that once you were in, there wasn’t too much back and forth traffic, if that makes sense.

I only saw one restroom for each gender, and they were in the hall that connected the main lobby to the feis area, but still not to far away. I did see lines at the womans room, but never really at the mens, go figure ;)

The hotel was also the feis hotel and the rooms were nice, relatively cheap at $89 compared to other feiseanna I have been to, and very quiet considering the airport was literally RIGHT THERE and there was a constant flow of planes.

The hotel had a nice restaurant ($$$$) and a small convenience store where you could buy SBux drinks and other things. They also set up a cash and carry food stand for the feis in a separate room.

I can’t speak to the parking for people who attended that day, but those that stayed over paid $10 for in-and-out parking. I can imagine that parking was hard to find close, because even for guests the lots were very full.

For a hotel feis, I prefer this over Saturdays in Pittsburgh (see Pitt or WV feis reviews) or the St. Louis feis I attended at one a few years ago.

Camping

Camping, what’s camping? I understand that designated camping areas are not common at Southern Region Feis, so suffice it to say, there were none. People lined their stuff up against hallway walls, and took up as many chairs as they needed for their stuff. We put ours in a back corner and were always able to find chairs to sit on, so, even without ‘camping’ it wasn’t bad. A smaller cap then we are used to probably helped.

Stages and Seating

There were 5 stages designated, but in my opinion, it was more like 2 and a half.

Stages 1, 2, and 3 were in the grades room and were actually one really big stage divided with tape into 3 smaller ones. If I had to guesstimate, I would say it was about 48′ wide by 16′ deep making each ‘stage’ 16′ x 16′.  The issue, they were backed up to the back wall, so there could be two or three lines of dancers waiting to dance. Mix that with the occassional ‘handlers’ for younger comps, and there could be LITERALLY 50 people on the stage(s). Not a lot of room to dance.

Thaats a lot of dancers, and thiese were NOT some of the bigger groups I saw.

That’s a lot of dancers, and these were NOT some of the bigger groups I saw.

Seemed like there was a lot of seating for the grades room, but I only breezed through that room a few times. There were a lot of people standing, which made navigating the room difficult. Lets just say, it was kind of tight in there.

The champs room held stages 4 & 5, which like the other room was actually only 1 big stage(which is how it was used for the champs), divided in half by tape. I estimate it was 36′ wide and 20′ deep, and was a nice size for champs. I wondered why they had it split but TGC informed me they had done some sets on both halves earlier.

Seating was adequate, I refer you back to my Camping mention above.

All stages were  neither plain plywood, or marley covered, but were painted with something that appeared to me to be somewhere between chalkboard paint, and the non-skid paint we used on the Navy ships I was on, to keep people from slipping on wet decks. OK, so these were not gritty, but that is what it reminded me of. Whatever it was, it worked. I saw no slips or falls during any of the dancing I observed.

Feis staff appeared to be on top of stage maintenance. While I did not see any sweeping (granted I was not near the stages during the lunch break), I saw staff pick up anything that had fallen off dancers numerous times between dances.

Recommendation: As I think about it, I am not sure how much room was between stages 1, 2 and 3 and the wall behind them, but if they could pull the stages out a few feet, it would give the dancers more room to stand off-stage, and more room to dance on it. This would cut into spectator area though.

Judges

I cannot speak to the grades level judging, other than the fact there was one on each stage. How often or if they rotated I do not know. Hoping for a Grades Feis review to help with these details.

There were three judges for the PC and OC stage, whom seemed attentive. I also saw that they accommodated a judge conflict very smoothly, with a quick judge change and no noticeable interruption to the feis flow.

A list of the judges can be found here.

Musicians

Combined stages, so only two musicians for the feis, one in the Champs room, and one in the Grades room. This caused some VERY NOTICEABLE stage delays in the Grades room where I saw dancers standing on stage because their comp had finished, but larger comps of other one or the other (or both) stages were still dancing.

No musical confusion because of the separate rooms which was nice.

A list of the musicians can be found here.

Food

I did not feel the hotel was ready for the onslaught of dancers and fans. The cash and carry (I understand) was a nightmare at lunch time, and the times I went in there before lunch, it seemed like they had a standard sandwich, salads, drinks type selection, but it was all expensive. We paid $3 for an 8oz bottle of water.

The restaurant was not staffed for lots of people. We had 45 minutes, but did not have time to order a meal, and settled for appetizers and drinks. The restaurant food was excellent, even the appetizers (we had eaten there on Friday night too), but was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY pricey, especially if you wanted to enjoy a beer or glass of wine with your meal.

The small store had salads, wraps (I think) etc… but very limited selection. The coffee was reasonably priced.

There was nothing close to the hotel if you wanted to venture outside at lunch.

Vendors

All the necessities, two different shoe options, wig and hair stuff, the tshirt guy, etc… There was one table that remained cover until after all the other vendors had opened, and I was very happy to find they had not only Lucozade (an early memory from my Grandmother’s store in Ireland), but also Smarties. These came in very handy later in the day. Facebook followers probably know what I am talking about :)

A list of the vendors can be found here.

Feis Flow

Slow start, at least on the Champs stage, but I found out that was because there were Figures dances going on in the other room and they were waiting for those to finish before they ramped up on the champs stage. They probably started 20 – 30 minutes after scheduled start.

Once they got going though, they kept things moving, made announcements on what was coming next, made announcements when people were missing, giving them a chance to get there, etc… Remember, this is on the champs stage. I cannot speak to how the flow was in the Grades room.

Awards and Results

Results

Results for grades were posted along the two walls towards the back of the Awards/Results room. You would need to go back and check, and could get your awards at the table near the door on the way out. They had place holders for each comp until the results were posted, and had placeholders for Champ results on the walls, but I never saw them replaced with any actual results. Champ results were announced like I am used too.

One thing I did notice was that names and numbers were on the results for Grades. I am not a fan of that necessarily, check out my safety posts for my reasons.

This is where I usually say how fast the results were announced, but I do not know how long it actually took as they took a lunch break and announced them right after lunch. So, they could have been 30 minutes, or it could have been closer to 105 minutes, not really sure. If it was closer to 30 when they were ready (even though we did not know), that was great. If it was the other extreme, that is average to meh.

For Champs, they called out the top half of each comp who placed, much like I am used to. There was no individual rounds results, instead they went right to the placers, starting highest to lowest. I find this VERY NERVE-WRACKING, especially since individual rounds were not announced to give ‘a clue’ of the potential results. With each name called, you are both happy and concerned, not hearing your dancers name, because they either placed higher, or not at all ;) If you follow me on Facebook, you probably know how TGC did.

There was a 3-tier podium, always a nice touch.

Awards

In case I don’t get a separate Grades review, I saw the medals for grades level events and they looked nice, but I was not able to see one up close. I did notice they gave just the medal, and no ribbon for the dancers to be able to wear them. Points off in my opinion there :(

For Champs, there were some nice crystal awards, BUT NO SASHES! SASHES, YES WE NEED STINKIN’ SASHES.

IMHO, sashes is THE appropriate award for top placers, at least the top 3. Other things are nice, but a sash is ‘the’ sign of success.

I am also used to champ level dancers being able to pick up their results at awards, which did not happen here. Not sure if this is the norm in the Southern Region, just not what we were used to.

Misc/Social Media

No real social media effort that I saw, but to be honest, I did not look.

Feis Na Tara, Champs 2015 Overall Score – 8.25+

From a champs perspective, I think this was a pretty well run feis with a few nits, that may be regional. Still say they need Sashes, but maybe that is just me. If I had to score the entire feis, including Grades, I don’t think it would have faired as well.

What Did Y’All Think? (see what I did there? ;) )

What did you think of the Feis Na Tara, Champs 2015, (on a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being lowest)?

  • 6 (33%, 2 Votes)
  • 8 (33%, 2 Votes)
  • 7 (17%, 1 Votes)
  • 10 (17%, 1 Votes)
  • 5 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 4 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 3 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 2 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 9 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 1 (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 6

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Maple City Feis 2015 Review

maplecityThe Inaugural Maple City Feis was held on February 21st, 2015 at the John D. Bradley Convention Center in Chatham, Ontario, Canada, and was hosted by the Cornell School.

Any feis can have its positives and negatives, and this feis is no different. Not going to pull any punches on the lows, considering this was the first one, or restrain myself on the highs. I mean if I can ding the feis that I was part of, why would I be any different for anyone else ;)

I do think the hand made chocolates in the shape of a maple leaf given to each dancer was a nice touch, especially if the dancer has nut allergies and does not eat anything where we can’t read the label, do she gave it to her Dad. It was delish by the way ;)

Venue

Our initial reaction to this ‘convention center’ was “wow, that’s small.” Might be the fact we are used to places like the IX Center at North Coast, but considering our initial thoughts, I thought this was a pretty good venue. In general, it was of adequate size for the number of competitors that attended, but I thought they could have used the space a little better.

As soon as you walked in, to the right were a number of long tables down one wall, adequate for eating, but really not much else. These took up a great deal of space, were not necessarily located close enough to any stage to see, and ended up being camping so when it was time to eat, seating for eating was hard to come by.

Temperature wise, I thought it was comfortable considering the meh weather outside. There only seemed to be one restroom per gender, but that did not seem to be an issue considering the attendance, and the venue was small enough where they were fairly convenient.

There were two larger rooms off one end of the venue. One served as the Open Champs stage area, and the other held the Champs award area with a podium, the grades awards table, and a section set aside for used dress sales.

The Awards/Dress room was fine, the Open Champ room was a claustrophobes nightmare. The stage was huge and marley covered, raised well above the spectators, then came the judge area, a bit lower but still raised, and then the spectator seating. As always, it seemed that people took as many chairs as their luggage needed, leaving lots of people standing, blocking walkways, etc… At one point, they were three deep at the entrance to the room, making entry and exit nearly impossible. IMHO, they could have taken out a third of the chairs, which, if nothing else, would have made more standing and travel room.

Stages and Seating

There were six stages in all. Stage 6, the Open Champ stage, as mentioned above, was huge, with too much seating, which was a stark contrast to the remaining stages which were, considering the size of the venue, to small, and there was NO SEATING SET UP FOR SPECTATORS!

Stages 1 & 2, and 3 & 4 were combined, with a single musician each (at least the stage I saw, but it only makes sense considering the way they were set up that the other was the same). These stages were set so they were back-to-back, and the best I can tell they were individually about 20ish x 16ish feet each. Thing is, if you line a big comp of dancers up on each one, who, because they are back-to-back, are standing on the stage, and dance two or three dancers at a time, things start getting tight really quickly.

Stage 1 & 2 was covered with what looked like gray (or grey depending on your country) marley, and was used later as a single stage for PC set dances, which was an adequate size for that purpose. Stages 3 & 4 were just plywood, and still to small, but I digress.

Stage 5 was the PC stage, was marley covered, and appeared to be about 24 x 32. Good size.

The feis volunteers seemed to be on top of stage maintenance, and I did not see any slips or falls during the day.

Recommendation: I think there was enough room in the venue to separate the stages so none were joined, which would have reduced stage congestion since dancers would be able to line up behind, instead of on, the stage.

Recommendation: Chairs, get chairs, and put them out for the spectators, not just around the tables and in the OC room.

Oh, and did I mention chairs would be a nice addition?

Camping

Camping was probably adequate, but an area was not marked off, so it tended to spread out and spill over into the ‘walkways.’ Combine that with people standing to view the dancing, and the people who set up their camp chairs closer to the stages, it made it difficult to get around.

Judges

I cannot speak to the grades level judging, other than the fact there was one on each stage. How often or if they rotated I do not know, but I did hear one comment that one dancer had danced for the same judge for all her dances.

There were three judges on each the PC and OC stages, whom seemed attentive.

Musicians

As mentioned, the ‘combined’ stages shared a musician, and the champ stages (5 and 6) each had their own musician. If you were standing near the center of the venue, there was a lot of musical confusion, but it decreased nearer the stages.

I did hear one musical negative, and that was regarding the keyboard player. He seemed to start each of the pieces in a less traditional way. One sounded to me like the start of a 50’s rock and roll song, and I heard a similar comment from another spectator. I really didn’t put to much thought into that until I heard dancers saying that it was hard to get a good count with the way he started the songs.

Food

Convention center food, pizza, wraps, salads, fried stuffs, drinks etc… which was not super expensive. I shared a wrap with TGC that was pretty good. The pizza looked good and the slices were large, so no complaints. There were two concession stands set up and there really never seemed to be an obnoxious line.

Well, there was one complaint, I did not find out till late in the day I missed an opportunity to have poutine. THAT won’t happen again.

Vendors

Only a few, and not all dance related. You could probably get any necessities for dance, but compared to other feiseanna I attend, the vendor pickings were a bit sparse.

SIDE NOTE: They did have Cadbury, but no Smarties :(

Feis Flow

I am torn here…. lunch break was set to end at 12:30, and close to 1:00 our stage had not resumed while others already had. When you have been STANDING AROUND (yes, that is a no chairs remark) for hours, it starts to wear on both the dancers and the spectators.

That being said however, when they got started, they were through the hard and soft shoe rounds, and the set for a ‘larger’ comp in just about an hour. Makes you wonder where the disconnect on getting lunch done on time if the morning had run the same way.

Awards and Results

Results

Results for grades were posted along one wall near all the tables. I liked the fact that they posted just competitor numbers and no names, but the size of the font was a bit hard to read and could have been much larger considering the limited info on each results sheet.

For champ results, I am used to waiting at least 60 minutes, and most often about 90 to get results, so I was VERY IMPRESSED that results were ready in about 30 minutes for TGCs comp.

maplecitymedalAwards

There were medals in the shape of the feis logo which I thought was cool.

Each of the ‘placers’ got a small momentum that looked like a nice glass statue, but on further  investigation, were just plastic and felt a little cheap.

Champs had sashes for top 3, and some other chotchkies. Didn’t get a close enough look at them. The 1st place dancer recieved a bottle of maple syrup in a maple leaf shaped bottle. Very cool touch.

Misc/Social Media

No real social media effort that I saw, but ONE OF THE BEST FEIS WEBSITES I HAVE SEEN. Parallax scrolling, very geeky and appreciated by those of us who notice stuff like that ;)

Maple City Feis Overall Score – 6.75

I really think this feis has potential. A number of the ‘cons’ I think could be easily corrected. I know it was the first one, so I am interested to see where it goes in the future.

What Did You Think?

What did you think of the Maple City Feis 2015, (on a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being lowest)?

  • 7 (44%, 8 Votes)
  • 8 (22%, 4 Votes)
  • 10 (17%, 3 Votes)
  • 6 (17%, 3 Votes)
  • 5 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 4 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 3 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 2 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 9 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 1 (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 18

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North Coast Eats, 2015

If you don’t already know, I occasionally mention some of the good eats we find while we are on the feiseanna trail. You can find the complete list in my Feistaurants section but for this post, I wanted to point out a few places you may want to consider the next time you are up Cleveland way. BTW – Cleveland and North Coast both have a few previous feistaurant entries ;) (more…)

North Coast Feis 2015

ncf

The North Coast Feis was held on February 7th, 2015 at the IX Center in Cleveland, OH. This is the second year we have been at this feis at this level, and the 4th (I think) time we have been to the feis.

This year was very much a repeat of last year, and I was thinking about just pointing you to that last review :)  Instead, I will quote that, and point out what might be different. You can read the whole review here.

Venue

2014 Recap

The IX Center was OK as a feis venue. The PC/OC area was in the ballroom on the main level and was a good size room, but not adequate for the amount of people needing to be in there.

Camping was not sufficient and there was lots of camping in the viewer seating. Many areas were marked ‘no camping’ but they were full of campers, and that caused some flow issues for people trying to get from the front to the back of the room.

There were 3 stages labeled G – I, for PC and OC dancers. Stage sizes appeared to be about 20 x 24 and were small for the level of dancers performing on them. The stages were extremely slippery and there were lots of falls. The feis team mopped often but it did not help.

There was pretty good separation between the stages, but music could be heard from neighboring stages. It did not seem to impact the dancers much though.

Seating was not adequate for the viewers, but was probably all they could put in considering room size. The feis committee attempted to leave adequate room for people to move around (I refer back to the camping in the no camping area comment), but it really did not work out.

Parking was good, not all ‘close’, but plentiful. It was a bit pricey at $8. The weather was not great on that day but there was a large covered drop off area in front of the venue.

2015 Notes

Everything was pretty much the same, except:

  • The room was set up the same, but it did not feel as cramped as last year, and flow through seemed easier. They had moved the stages farther into the room, so there was less congestion toward the front of the hall.
  • Less falls this year but the stages were still slippery. The crew was ready with the broom and swept frequently.
  • I did not see any ‘No Camping’ signs, and one would think I would notice ;) This made it a camping free-for-all. We had mapped out an area with coats, the dress bag and a zuca and someone camped in the middle… smh
  • Parking was $10 this year.

Side Bar: I really wish they could do something about the fumes in the lobby. I think they are from generators from the home show. It makes spending any time in the lobby nauseating.

Venue Score: 7

Judges

2014 Recap

With the Girl Child having 3 dances, and dancing on 3 separate stages, and because PC dancers have 3 judges per stage, none of whom rotated to another stage, I have no complaints on the judging.

I actually thought it was an excellent opportunity for the dancers, performing in front of 9 different judges for the feis. With 9 judges, comments were more well rounded than the typical 2 or 3 judges that you ‘might’ get at a grade level.

2015 Notes

Ditto

Judge Score: 10

Music

2014 Recap

Each stage had its own musician and I did not hear any complaints about music.

2015 Notes

Ditto

Musician Score: 9.5

Food

2014 Recap

Standard convention center food, hamburgers, cheesebugers, pretzels, pizza, wraps and salads, a coffee stand, various drink booths and beer. Food quality was OK but not worth the price. It was about what you expect for a convention center.

2015 Notes

We were actually done early and did not take advantage of concessions.

Food Score: NA

Vendors

2014 Recap

George, the shoe guy, and Betsy, his daughter(who also responds to ‘George’s Daughter’ btw), the feis t-shirt table, wig ladies, a jewelry booth, an Irish wool and linens vendor, and the photographer. You can see all the vendors at the the feis site under Vendors.

2015 Notes

Another ditto. But, GEORGE was back after having been away from us for a while. Very happy to see you George!

Vendor Score: 7.5

Results

2014 Recap

Results are different at Champ level, as some of you know. Results for all dances are completed, top 3 in each dance determined, and then the overall top half from the entire comp are determined. When they are ready, the dancers are gathered and awards presented.

I can understand where it would take time to do this, but timeliness was only one of the issues I felt the results had. It took approximately 1.5 to 2 hours from completion of TGCs last dance to presentation of her awards. I felt that was a little long, granted, I have never tallied a PC comp so that might be normal.

Results were presented in an area on the lower level that would have been fine if comps had been done one at a time. Thing is, they waited until somewhere around 5 comps were ready before presenting the awards.

Picture if you will, 5 comps of dancers with 10 – 20 dancers each, the parents and friends for all those dancers, and dance bags and zucas for some of them, crammed into an area not fit for that many people. It was difficult for dancers to get to the presentation area when called, and for spectators to see, and picture taking was next to impossible. Not planned well at all. I feel simply doing them one comp at a time would have helped tremendously.

2015 Notes

Huge improvement over last year!

  • Time from dance to awards dropped to somewhere between 60 and 90 minutes.
  • They moved the results up to the side of the venue lobby which is a huge area and added a podium. There was plenty of room for dancers and families.
  • CON: There were no chairs which would have been nice for some spectators, and, we were in the lobby where the fumes I mentioned above lingered :(

Results Score: 7.5

Feis Flow

2014 Recap

Flow was not bad considering the number of dancers, TGC had three dances on three separate stages, with about 20 dancers in the comp and she was finished in roughly 2.5 hours. Since this is only the second PC feis we have attended, I really do not have a standard to judge it by, but I thought that was pretty good.

2015 Notes

Ditto, right down to the number of dancers. Oh, I have a lot more than 2 PC feiseanna under my belt now.

Feis Flow Score: 8

Scoring

Overall, I thought this was a better feis than last year and would put it in the 7.5 to 8 category.

What Say You?

What did you think of the North Coast Feis 2015, Champs Levels (on a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being lowest)?

  • 9 (40%, 2 Votes)
  • 8 (40%, 2 Votes)
  • 10 (20%, 1 Votes)
  • 7 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 6 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 5 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 4 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 3 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 2 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 1 (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 5

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Raleigh Feis 2015 , Champs Review

raleighThe Raleigh Feis is hosted by the Inis Cairde School of Irish Dance. The 2015 Feis was held on Friday February 6th (Adult and Music Comps) and Saturday February 7th (Grade and Champs). The location for the Feis was the Durham Marriott Convention Center in Durham, NC. Information regarding the feis was available on their website Raleigh Feis. This is the third time we have attended the Raleigh Feis. We like it for it’s location and the size of the competitions not too small, not too big. This area of Durham is up and coming and is surrounded by eclectic restaurants and shops. Many of these places are within walking distance to the Feis.

Venue

The venue for 2015 was the same as 2014–Durham Convention Center, conveniently attached to the Feis Hotel, Durham Marriott City Center. The ballrooms (used for champs) were spacious and there was not a feel of overcrowding in the Champs competition areas. Air temperature inside the rooms was cool. Even the hallways were not as jam packed as many feisianna we have attended.

Score 10

Hotel

A feis rate of 121.00 was offered with a daily fee of 12.00 for parking (valet only). For those guests not staying at the hotel, parking cost 3.00 in the garage. The hotel is nice and staff are friendly, rooms are adequate in size. The price is a little above average but the convenience of location is a benefit. While the service in the hotel lobby restaurant is slow, that is of no fault to the feis committee! Besides, there are plenty of highly rated restaurants near the hotel.

Score 8

Stages and seating

The stages were huge! They were slightly (one inch?) raised off the ground and covered in marley. There were no slipping issues that we could see and none that my dancer experienced. As for seating, the ballrooms offered plenty of chairs for guests.

Score 9

Judges

Three judges scored dancers in both rounds. They all left comments for my dancer and as most will agree, that is appreciated. The set round judge also left comments for my dancer and seemed attentive throughout the competition.

Score 9

Musicians

Champ stages each had one musician, whose music could be heard without issue. Thank you to the musicians for doing a wonderful job.

Score 10

Food

No outside food/coolers were allowed. The Feis program which was available about 10 days in advance provided a menu (with prices) of what would be available for purchase that day. While I prefer to bring my own food to a feis, knowing what will be offered and how much it will cost is beneficial. Items were somewhat pricey- the food was provided by the hotel and not affiliated with the feis. The hotel didn’t prepare well and had decreased options by lunch time. By the way, the hotel didn’t appear strict about the “no food” policy (we had our own drinks and snacks…shhhhhh). Vendors also sold snacks (taytos, cadbury, etc).

Score 7

Vendors

  • Celtic Curls – Wigs and accessories
  • Celtic Shoes – Fay’s Irish Dance Shoes
  • Emerald Key – Solo costumes, wigs
  • FabRince Callahans – Pacelli, Hullachan, Rutherford Shoes
  • Fine Designs – Official feis logo products
    • **Note: 2015 Raleigh Feis T-Shirts are available pre-sale only when registering on Feisworx, click to see the design
  • Hibernian Designs – Handmade totes, dance bags, cross-body cellphone holders
  • Thirty-One Gifts – Purses, totes, bags
  • Wild Irish Rose – Celtic jewelry, gifts and ornaments

Score 10

Seating/Camping

The ballrooms provided plenty of seating and therefore traditional “camping” is unnecessary. As usual some chairs were covered in dress bags, zuca bags and coats to “hold” seating. Overall there were seats available to those that wanted them.

Score 10

Restrooms

Location was close to the stages. One stall for the ladies room was “out of order” but this is at no fault of the feis. A short line was usually present. Another restroom was just outside the convention area and easy to get to.

Score 8

Feis Flow

The feis began at 8am with the National Anthems and then teams competition. Stages were held until teams were finished (there was an issue with this but that review should come from the grades reviewer). Once Stage 3 started (around 9:45) they moved the comps nicely. Dancers danced two at a time. While the stage was large enough for three dancers it’s always nice to have your dancer out there with only one other competitor. Morning Sets were held up a bit waiting for an adjudicator and musician. Later in the day there were more delays. This was the only negative thing that we experienced.

Score 7

Results

The results for the first few champ competitions were posted nearly 2 hours after completion of dancing. As the day pushed on it took as long, if not longer for results to be posted. This is a long time to wait! But, once the recall list was posted the awards were presented within 10 minutes. (“Recall” meaning if your number is up there you are getting an award, not the “recall” like at Oireachtas).

Score 6

Awards

The awards were made of crystal and they were splendid. In looking at pictures on twitter, instagram, and facebook, some examples of the awards were candlesticks, vases, cake platter,butterflies, and others. Sashes in bright hues of White (3rd) Purple (2nd) and Aqua (1st) were awarded as well. Top three dancers had a podium to stand on. Awards were in a separate room from dancing- it was spacious and the announcer could be heard easily. The person/people in charge of awards did a fantastic job.

Score 10

Social Media/Misc

Everything you needed to know about this event was posted on Facebook and here. The Raleigh Feis also has an Instagram page and utilized Twitter Twitter handle to announce results/awards- although it took until 11:30a.m to begin informing anxious parents/dancers when awards would finally be announced. A competitor list was posted which most attendees are happy about. I cannot praise the social media volunteers enough for the information that was provided (more info during the feis please) Something else worth recognizing at this feis was the Charity Reel to support the South Florida Chapter of the ALS association and in honor of the late Maureen Harling-Welty. The Feis raised $840.00!

Score 9

Raleigh Feis Overall Score- 8.0

The sluggish result time is the only hiccup we experienced at this feis on the champs side. According to pictures on facebook the last competitions received their results/awards just after 6pm. That seems like a long day for both the champ families and the feis volunteers! Had the results been quicker the overall score would have easily been a 9. However, there are positives to this feis such as spacious rooms, large stages, hallways were not cramped, a dress room (monitored) was offered, food was available, awards were fantastic and the volunteers were helpful and available. Special Competitions were offered for Adults, Figures, Parent/Child, Trad Set, Non Trad Set, Treble Reels/Charity reel (hard and soft shoe), Irish art, Irish baking, Vocal and Music. If you are looking for a nice feis in the Southern Region during February, consider the Raleigh Feis in 2016.

Thank you Inis Cairde Families!

What did you think?

What did you think of the Raleigh Feis 2015, Champs Level (on a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being lowest)?

  • 10 (33%, 1 Votes)
  • 2 (33%, 1 Votes)
  • 5 (33%, 1 Votes)
  • 9 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 8 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 7 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 6 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 4 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 3 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 1 (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 3

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Raleigh Feis 2015, Grades Review

raleighThe Raleigh Feis was held February 6 and 7, 2015. Even though it is called the Raleigh Feis, it was held in the Durham Convention Center, in downtown Durham, North Carolina. This feis put the Ish in Irish. Registration began at 6ish on Friday evening. The competitions began at 8ish on Saturday. The stages were handled in a professional-ish manner. After all, enough is as good as a feast, isn’t it? This was the first feis, in a long time, where we have not heard Quiet in the Hall. So this was also a quiet-ish feis. The feis had something for all ages and abilities. The feis offered competitions in Celtic instrumental music and vocals. They also offered Celtic Art and Baking competitions. The main feis competitions were supplemented by treble reels, traditional and non traditional sets specials, and the Maureen Harling-Welty charity reel specials.

Venue: 6 out of 10

This was advertised as a convention center feis. As this was our first experience, we went on the advertised information. Our mistake. This is a glorified hotel convention center feis. Think crowded ballrooms, low lighting, and cramped hallways. With the stages on the floor, it caused most spectators to stand. Only the first four rows could see the dancers fully. From the fifth row on to the back, you saw bobbing heads and bouncing curls. The feis had previously announced a No Camping policy. It also announced that the venue would provide ample feis seating. Ample feis seating is a relative term. This could be seen by the numbers of people standing or kneeling in the aisles. Personally, I learned that posting an irritating tween next to empty seats for your family is as effective as a pile of gear. The more people who ask if the seats are taken, the more irritated the tween becomes. I think one family kept nearly half a row empty with this method. Of course, I pity those in the immediate vicinity of said tween. But, a method to remember, none the less.

Parking: 10 out of 10

For a feis, parking was plentiful. Some intrepid feis goers found free parking, on the street. Others could park at the municipal garage for $3 a day. Hotel parking ranged from $9 to $12, for overnight guests. So, all things considered, parking was an A+ for this feis.

Food: 6 out of 10

$2 for a bag of chips. $1.50 for a piece of fruit. The outside food and drink rule was sporadically enforced. Many feis supporters were seen carrying hotel coffee cups into the venue. (Yours truly, included.). The way in which the venue was constructed made it easy to leave for a bite to eat. The hotel provided coffee in the lobby, for those who knew where to look. Ash Wilkes was much more pleasant, after having his pre-feis and mid-feis cups of coffee. The feis provided 2 different food stands. Feis vendors also sold snacks. (Genuine Cadbury, anyone?)

Music: 5 out of 10

One little darling had a blessed accordionist for their stages. Said accordionist also had to repair their instrument during the morning competition. It caused confusion and delay. Our older three darlings had a fiddler for accompniament. Even in the best of circumstances, a violin is difficult to hear over hard shoe competitions. This proved to be no exception. We saw several dancers experience music related problems. Speaker volume and instrument connectivity were also a problem.

Judging: 4 out of 10

Two of our darlings had the same judge for all of their competitions. Our other two darlings had two judges for their competitions. This worked out favorably for all but one of our darlings. As I have said before, at a perfect feis, they would have a different judge for each dance. The least they could have done was to send them to the opposite stage in the same room. Then, there would have been some attempt at rotation. Sadly, for two of our darlings, all of their competitions were on the same stage…for the same judge. This feis did something we have not seen previously. They listed their art, music, and baking judges separately. The Art and Baking judges gave written comments. It was a nice touch and was an appreciated surprise by several recipients. The music judge gave verbal comments with the awards ceremony. Again, a nice touch.

Results: 6 out of 10

The results came out in a timely manner, in the morning. The room for the results was very well chosen. An L shaped location, with large easels. Brilliant solution, Raleigh Feis! It allowed for traffic flow, simple locating, and easy results reading. Champ results, with podium, were announced in a separate location. Again, brilliant move for the Raleigh Feis.

Awards: 6 out of 10

This would have been higher, if they had not advertised special awards for their art and baking competitions. Those competitors received standard medals. Which is fine, except when the feis advertising suggested otherwise. Prizewinner and above received feis emblazoned trophies. We saw several smiling dancers carrying them. Also, the top three champ placements received sashes. Wide satin sashes, with the feis name on them. This feis also offers a charity reel special, in memory of Maureen Harling-Welty. Each participating dancer received a commemorative card, long stemmed rose, and a Twizzler. This set of special was popular with all ages, from beginner to championship dancers. The new medals this feis rolled out were interesting. A clear, etched, plastic oval with the feis name and location. Instead of using gold, silver and bronze to differentiate placements, day glow medal neck ribbons were the identifier. The only draw back to these medals are the noise they make. Plastic clunking into plastic. Now, what else makes that noise? LEGOS. It is the same sound they make, as they are being dumped out of a box. Now, I don’t know about anyone else, but that sound makes me cringe. One little darling had their medals taken from in the car, on the ride home. Even Mellie Wilkes can only take so much.

Social Media: 5 out of 10

The feis utilized social media in the weeks leading up to the feis. They also began using social media to announce champ award times. Sadly, this happened after the lunch break. Social media would have been helpful with the reasons behind slow grade stages and the bumping up of charity specials in the schedule.

Overall Score: 6

All things considered, this was an enjoyable feis for the Wilkes family. Even though it was a bit of a drive, we plan to attend next year. The Raleigh Feis volunteers put in a lot of work. It resulted in a successful feis.

So what did you think?

What did you think of the Raleigh Feis 2015 (on a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being lowest)?

  • 10 (13%, 1 Votes)
  • 9 (13%, 1 Votes)
  • 8 (13%, 1 Votes)
  • 7 (13%, 1 Votes)
  • 6 (13%, 1 Votes)
  • 4 (13%, 1 Votes)
  • 3 (13%, 1 Votes)
  • 2 (13%, 1 Votes)
  • 5 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 1 (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 8

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Feising for the ‘traditional’ sports parents

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My latest post on Antonio Pacelli, some dos and don’ts for the first time parents who have brought their children up in ‘less cool’ sports like football. Also good for family and friends who are going to their first feis.

Read the entire post out at https://www.antoniopacelli.com/community/article/attending-your-first-feis-for-the-traditional-sports-parents

Feis Na Cara 2015, Champs Review

carafeislogo1Feis Na Cara, hosted by the McDade-Cara school was on Sunday, January 11th, 2015 at the Marple Sports Complex in Broomall, PA. This is a new location for this feis (formerly held at the Sportsplex in Feasterville, PA). The 2015 venue is familiar to the McDade-Cara school as this is the location for the Four Provinces Feis held in April.  The start time for the feis was 8:45 am. This was our 3rd time attending Feis Na Cara, but the first time on the Champs stages.

Venue

The venue is similar to the former venue- an indoor hockey rink. The parking was ample but most of it was on the street. Parking was not allowed at nearby businesses. The area is hilly so there was some uphill walking for folks! Plus, a very cold morning made a ½ mile walk seem very far!! But, it’s January right? A map of the stages/vendors/etc was provided by the Feis Committee via Facebook and Twitter. I found this very helpful to prepare myself and my child for the location where we needed to be. The fit inside the venue was tight. I really think the committee did a great job attempting to spread things out in general. However, because a hockey rink only has one or two “doors” to exit from, it’s difficult to have a good flow of traffic. The cap for this feis is 1000 and it met its cap so there were many people there!

Score 7

Hotel

A feis rate of 89.00 for a king and 99.00 for a queen was offered to guests choosing to stay at the Radnor Hotel. This hotel is less than 5 miles from the venue and is located in a nice area, It has a close proximity to restaurants and shopping should you have extra time on your hands.

Score 10

Stages and Seating

One rink hosted grades stages (4 of them) and the other rink hosted 3 stages for Champs. There is no formal seating but camping was allowed and many patrons brought in their own chairs. The stage size was ample for champs. Younger dancers danced 3 at a time and I didn’t see an issue with this. Older dancers dances two at a time. This information was also outlined in the syllabus. The stage itself was not raised and dancers competed on sport court flooring. Black tape ( I think it was tape?) covered the stages to prevent slipping. I did not see any slips or falls or hear complaints about this. These type of floors are designed for use with multiple sports thus it’s not known for being slippery. For what there is to work with, I thought the stages (5,6,and 7) functioned as they should. The only “problem” I had was that the sound for hard shoe was not as crisp as it would be on a wooden floor. This was the only fault I could find with the stages.

Score 7.5

Judges

Dancers danced for the same three judges in hard and soft shoe, which I believe is typical. Only one judge left a comment for my dancer and for only one of the rounds.

Score 8

Musicians

Each stage had their own set of musicians. The sound was ample and the dancers didn’t seem to have trouble hearing their music.

Score 10

Food

Coolers were not allowed at the feis, in fact upon entering the ice rink, you saw a person holding a sign saying “No outside food or drink”. They were serious! Vending machines for drinks were available, along with a bake sale, candy sale, and fresh fruit. Also, the ice rink has their own concession area with typical fare. We didn’t purchase food from that area, only a drink and candy bar.

Score 7

Vendors

Fayes was set up in the area of the champs stages. The Embroidery Girl and Head for the World were set up in the grades area.

Score 8

Camping

The area in the champs room/rink wasn’t overly crowded. It was full, but everyone seemed to fit. The area by the exit “door” (remember it’s an ice hockey rink) was packed and the flow in and out usually had a backup. The one way in one way out was the only fault I had with the camping area/stage area) It will be interesting to see the score from someone reviewing grades- that stage area seemed more crowded.

Score 8

Restrooms

Close to the dancing area. We never had to wait to use the restroom. They were kept clean.

Score 10

Feis Flow

Overall the stages moved at a good pace after a slight delay starting on time. When we arrived, the first Comp on our stage was just starting. That comp (according to the stage schedule) should have started at 9am– but it’s actual start time was 9:45 am. The last group finished at 5:01 pm (according to Feis Web).

Score 6.5

Awards and Results

We are new to the champ awards so I cannot tell you if this is normal, good or bad. But I will tell you how it worked and you can decide. A separate area was designated for awards. This room (I think it was the sales shop/skate sales area) was well marked and very close the champs area. The room was small though. This led to an extremely warm, Ok, it was hot in there! But you can imagine that due to healthy competition sizes (remember the cap is 1000) and parents watching will make an area over crowded. Outside the room the comps were listed on a large poster board and the award time was written in giving dancers and family members ample warning. The amount of time that elapsed between my dancer finishing the second rounds and the start of awards was about an hour. I do not know if this is typical or not and the hour wait didn’t bother me. Now onto the awards. Round awards were given (top half of dancers)- the hard shoe round placers received a hot cocoa/candy cane/ marshmallow packet in a styrofoam cup. The soft shoe round winners got a tube of chapstick. I thought these were cute, clever and functional! Best of all, EACH overall placers received a sash. That was a huge hit! Overall placers also got a trophy for their efforts. The room was hot but the awards made up for that. Maybe a fan next time to circulate the air?

Score 8.5

Misc/Social Media

The Feis had a table with raffle baskets (one had the newest American Girl Doll- HUGE hit!) , they held a charity treble reel (side stage registration available) and used social media (Facebook and Twitter) to its fullest. Volunteers were friendly and helpful. They also organized a canned food drive to benefit the Nelson County Food Pantry in Lovingston VA.

Score 10

Feis Na Cara Overall Score- 8

The traffic in and out of the stage area (aka rinks) and maneuvering around sometimes got tricky. The awards room was stuffy and the vendors were spread out so if you were not competing in one area you might have missed out on visiting a vendor. The volunteers were friendly and helpful, communication before and during the feis was satisfactory, and the location and hotel’s location was in a safe area. Stages moved swiftly and results were announced within one hour of completed competition. I like this feis and we have happily attended for the last 3 years. It will continue to be a feis we attend.

Please comment if you disagree with something I wrote. This will help me learn more about the expectations of feis goers as it pertains to the champ level and also to overall feis expectations.

Thank you!
Cheers, CC

What Did You Think?

What did you think of the Feis Na Cara 2015, Champs Level (On a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being lowest)?

  • 10 (25%, 1 Votes)
  • 8 (25%, 1 Votes)
  • 7 (25%, 1 Votes)
  • 5 (25%, 1 Votes)
  • 9 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 6 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 4 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 3 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 2 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 1 (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 4

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Pittsburgh Winter Feis 2014 Review, Grades Level

Feis Info

This review is for Saturday’s Grades competitions and this is the 4th year we have attended. The Pittsburgh Winter Feis is held at the Hyatt Pittsburgh Airport- the hotel is literally right at the airport. This feis is run by Jim G. and his great crew of volunteers (they also do the West Virginia Feis, Celtic Fling, Pittsburgh Halloween Feis and the new, Tessie Burke Feis). They had a bit of a challenge this year with a wedding reception occurring on Saturday evening, which required some logistical organization to get the feis things taken down or moved out of sight for the reception, and then back up for Sunday’s comp. The hotel restaurant was also under construction (staff said they hope to have it open again February). But with all that was going on, things from our perspective ran smooth. There were about 650 competitors registered for between the two days of competition. Registration was thru eFeis.

Venue

The competitions are held in a large ballroom (3 stages) and a smaller meeting room with one stage. Vendors are set up in the halls and there was a small room for camping (usually 2 rooms but one was being used as a temporary location for the hotel restaurant that was being remodeled). It seemed that that people were camping fairly light. It is worth staying at the hotel for the sake of ultimate convenience, you can zip down for the competition with minimal gear.

DD stages was covered with marley, I think, new for this feis I believe, and not sure if all stages had the marley. We saw no falls. The smaller room with one stage was tight- the stage was set in the center of the room which was much longer than it was wide. Chairs to observe available but many were also standing with a view from behind the stage as well. The competitor seating was behind the stage so the spectators were back a bit from the actual stage. It was a little loud from people talking in the room. Temperature was decent. We were in this room so I have no comment on how the larger room was for comfort as we only had one competition there late in the day and it had cleared out.

They give you a free parking pass with your dancer card. If you stay a second night and are not dancing on Sunday, you can get a $5 parking pass. I believe the daily rate was $13.

 Score: 9/10

Judges

Different judge for all dances and she received comments from all.  2 judges sharing table and they seemed to take turns with the competitions. Our judges seemed really engaged and enjoying the dancing.

Score: 10/10

Musicians

There was one musician per stage and DD good here it well.  I did talk to another parent who said their daughter was having trouble hearing the music on her stage because she could hear the music from the other stages, she was dancing on the stage in the middle of the room. She said she wished the walls were pulled out more to help with the sound but then that would probably sacrifice seating.

Score: 10/10

Food

We did not eat but there seemed to be the usual junk feis food, such as soft pretzels, chicken strips. I did notice some fresh fruit. They didn’t seem to have as much this time perhaps because of the space constraints happening because of the restaurant remodel. Also, the mini-Starbucks coffee bar was also really scaled back. They had brewed coffee, which may have been Starbucks, but did not have the sissy coffee drinks that they usually have available. Again, that will reopen again after the remodel. You can also venture over to the aiport but selections in my opinion are so-so. I have gotten a big ceasar salad at a deli there. My advice, bring your own.

Score: 4/10

Vendors

I really didn’t venture into the vendors much this year. We did see the spray paint t-shirt guy and Rutherford. They were positioned down at the end of the hall, further down because of the wedding. Harrington Photography was also there. The vendors met our needs.

Score: 8/10

Results

Our results were up very quickly. Posted on eFeis Sunday afternoon, after the champ comps, and personal results emailed around the same time.

Score: 10/10

Feis Flow

The flow was good. They started on time. They did break around noon for a ½ lunch. Our stage monitor gave everyone the heads up when they were going to break and for how long. They stuck to the schedule and were back at it in a half hour. Jim was moving comps off of our stage onto other open stages to keep it flowing. I think they were on a mission to get done timely so they could give the hotel staff ample time to turn things over for the wedding.

Score: 10/10

Scoring

I give the feis an overall score of 9/10. The food was the only sour point and maybe the committee will work with facility to improve that next year.

Rating

Overall 8.5/10

Local Attraction

I know a few people were saying that it was “out in the middle of nowhere”, but it really isn’t. It seems that way because of the airport roads and expansiveness of the airport property. There are other restaurants and hotels nearby either by Robert Morris University, or head toward Pittsburgh. There is a huge shopping complex called Robinson Town Center which has numerous restaurants. Downtown Pittsburgh is a quick drive, 20-25 minutes without traffic. If you have a car, venture out – there is nothing like driving through the tunnel and seeing the city of Pittsburgh on the other side.

What Did You Think?

What did you think of the Pittsburgh Winter Feis 2014, Grades Level (On a scale of 1 - 10 with 1 being lowest)?

  • 9 (33%, 2 Votes)
  • 8 (33%, 2 Votes)
  • 10 (17%, 1 Votes)
  • 7 (17%, 1 Votes)
  • 6 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 5 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 4 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 3 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 2 (0%, 0 Votes)
  • 1 (0%, 0 Votes)

Total Voters: 6

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