Posts By: Mom O'Treble

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. read more

Southern Tier Feis 2014, Grades Level Review

Be sure to see the Local Attractions addon by Mom O’Treble at the very bottom of this review below the poll.

This review coming from a “grades” perspective. This is the second time that we attended this feis. The Southern Tier Feis is held in Binghamton, NY on the campus of Broome County Community College. It was a smaller feis with a little less than 500 entrants. They used Feisworx, which I love for speed of results at the venue and personal results.

Venue

The Feis was held in an ice hockey arena, without the ice of course! Seating was in the stands with all of the stages facing the seats, which provided for good viewing as a spectator and the hockey glass was clean for ease of viewing. There was some true camping on one end of the floor but really no need to bring a whole camp set-up as there was ample seating in the seats. Probably a good secret and need to get there early – but if deciding to camp, I would choose the penalty boxes. There was not spectator seating at the stages, only chairs were for the dancers; this eliminated traffic completely as people just moved in out as their dancer danced. Parking was free and ample- maybe a little walk if you arrived late. read more