This month has been a bit crazy, so for my Antonio Pacelli post this month, I am sharing some of the haiku I have previously posted here on WTF. If you have found them here, no point in clicking the link, but if you want to find out what I think about Irish Dance in 5/7/5, take a look at Haiku…You’re Welcome out on the Feis Dad page of Antonio Pacelli.
The 41st Annual Rockland County Feis was held on July 20, 2014 at the German Masonic Park in Tappan, NY.
Outside, in an open field. Bring your tents and chairs because it can get hot and the premium real estate goes fast. There is parking all around the venue, with parking attendants to direct the drivers. Trying to lug your Zuca bag through the rocks in the parking lot brings its own challenges, but the dancer managed it well. Bring your money, there is a per person gate fee attached to this feis, of course, dancers do not need to pay. There are activities going on all day – singing, music, kids games, even a playground for the siblings of bored dancers.
Good, typical food with relatively good prices. Typical sandwiches in the afternoon and bagels in the morning. There was a large beer garden over by the music section. I did see many dads in that section. I wonder why?
Nothing special. All essential feis items were represented.
Multiple grade stages across from three champ stages. I did not get out a measuring tape, but I would bet that at least one of the champ stages were not to regulation. They were awfully small. Many dancers were seen maneuvering corners and “going around” other dancers. Grade stages appeared to be the correct size.
Loud enough with good music. These musicians were smart, bringing their own tents to keep cool.
So, so. Trophies for champs, no sashes and no podiums. A podium would have been nice so parents could see who the winners are. Remember, most of the dancers are shorter than the parents and it was crowded in the red and white small circus tent. Volunteers tried to call out the names of winners to the background noise of passing trains, making it very difficult to hear. I found myself asking “Who?” many times. Some of the higher level champs had perpetual trophies and they looked very nice. Grade trophies and medals were nice.
The stages appeared to go off as scheduled. There was a nice speaker system that had a gentleman announcing the progress on stages and times of awards. Award times were posted on Twitter – though sometimes as they were starting “Results for 215 – now”… not very helpful when trying to get a dress back on and put down your beer cup from the garden.
[poll id=”50″]
The 26th Annual Governor Thomas Dongan Feis was held on Saturday July 19, 2014 at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, NY.
After several years of attending this feis, I still have no idea why I can’t find the actual venue. Everyone says to drive to the “big egg”. I can see the big egg, but it always takes me 15 minutes to figure out how to park near the big egg. This year was a little better, with only 10 minutes of circling the venue and its three surrounding blocks before I paid my $5 to park. Bring cash with you upstairs, because each adult is charged an additional gate fee. Grade stages are in the main room, with champ stages in two separate rooms.
The rooms are closely guarded with volunteers who will not let in ANY outside food. If you want something to drink, you must buy it there and eat it outside. One volunteer actually tried to stop my child from walking in with her water bottle. The food is OK, long lines around lunch time.
The typical ones, shoes, socks and tee shirts. All of the essential feis items were represented.
I am always amazed when this feis starts. There are four grades stages, all running concurrently. All stages start at once because they share the same musician. The stages are on a convention floor, only the dancers are allowed in the stage area. Stage volunteers do a great job lining dancers up to be ready. There are plenty of seats around the stages (higher up) for all of the parents to view. Stages 5 and 6 are in separate rooms, one with a raised stage, the other flat. Both rooms had adequate seating for on lookers.
One musician for 4 grade stages. The reels start and they don’t stop until all of the stages are complete. It always amazes me that they seem to keep to their published schedule. The Champ stages basically ran to time when we were there as well. Great job!
Uh, not much to say here. Champ awards included sashes and tiny ceramic vases with near dead tiny flowers. Medal rounds included clear plastic “medals”. The grades had the same plastic “medals” and first place trophies as well. With all of the money collected at the gate, I would think better awards may be a possibility, but what do I know.
Good, kept to schedule. Awards came out relatively quickly. Parents were updated on Twitter with times of awards and pictures. Over all good.
[poll id=”49″]
Just a quick update to let you know that ordering for new Feis Mom Eat, Pay, Drive and Feis Dad Eat, Pay, Drive tshirts is back online. By request, the Feis Mom shirt is available in both the fitted and a regular t styles. I still have some inventory from the first run available and on sale. Be sure to check out the Feis Dad Extra Strong Ts too!
Thanks for your patience.
UPDATE: It is now available for purchase, click here.
I rolled this out to a few dozen people a few weeks ago and it was received really well. So I would like to formerly announce the upcoming release of the Feis Dads – Extra Strong T-Shirt.
Inspired by some old Irish drink labels, in case you can’t tell, Feis Dads Extra Strong is a play on a dad’s ‘typical’ role in Irish dance. The date is based on info I found about when feiseanna became an organized sport.
The initial release will be on black t-shirts and I hope to have them available the weekend of 7/12. It will be priced in the $21 to $23 range due to the two-color design.
Let me know what you think and if you love it, share it 😉
The 22nd annual St. Ambrose Spring Feis was held Saturday, May 10, 2014 to Sunday, May 11, 2014 in Pomona, CA. This was our second year in a row attending this feis. We enjoyed ourselves so much last year that we decided to give it a go again and were not disappointed.
The venue for this feis is one of our favorites. This feis has been held at the Sheraton Fairplex Hotel and Conference Center in Pomona, California. The huge conference center building has all the stages and vendors in the same place plus a huge area to practice on the side, making it nice for parents with multiple dancers or parents that dance as well. There were quite a few dances that I was able to look down the line and see my daughter dancing while I was waiting in line to dance. Usually, I have to miss some of her dances because we are in separate rooms. It was a bit more crowded this year than last, however, we were only there on Sunday for the grades, not Championships. The building was nice and cool and the hotel is located in a safe little neighborhood close to the freeway. Parking is a breeze as there is always plenty of parking right in front of the conference center, and free too!
Most of the judges looked like they were having a good time and happy to be there. There were a few that were a bit more stern and didn’t seem to be paying much attention to the dancers, but you never know. One of the best parts of the day was watching one of my favorite judges hide the microphone from the announcer with an impish grin and then scurry off. The mood was playful throughout the day between judges and announcers and made for less nerves and butterflies for the dancers.
The music at this feis was ok. It was a little faster than most feisanna as some tend to be at times. The only major negative I found with this feis was a music issue and it wasn’t really the musicians fault. Being that the building was so large and had a VERY high ceiling, the fact that the musicians were stationed at one end of the stages made for some very distorted sounding music by the time it reached the other end of the stages. It was very hard to dance to and a lot of people were complaining about that. I think they finally turned on a speaker at the other end halfway throughout the day.
This feis had three food options on site. One feis food cart and a little pre-made sandwich shop from the hotel were located within the building, while the hotel lounge/restaurant was a few minute walk across the courtyard. I personally, did not eat at any of these but I heard that they were all pretty costly. As with most feisanna, we brought our own food to munch on during the day. Being that this was in Southern California there are a variety of really good Mexican restaurants within minutes from the hotel and we took advantage of one of them after it was over. There are plenty of other eating options in the area if you want to drive there.
Not as many booths as most of the feisanna we attend. Two or three shoe/wigs booths and the feis shirt guy was about it at this one.
Results were on time and posted on the huge wall over on the other side of the room so not much crowding and shoving to see them which is always nice.
This feis was very on time and flowed very nicely just like last year. Once it started there was not a lot of waiting in between dances and the day went by very fast and was fun.
This feis was super fun and very low key. It is located in an area with lots to do and see as well. Cleary is well organized and makes it enjoyable. We hope to be able to come every year. One thing I really like about this feis was the amount of adults that competed. The numbers were a lot higher than most feisanna and if you are an adult dancer this is a great one to move up in since there were way over 5 in all my dances.
[poll id=”48″]