Indiana Feis – What The Feis

The Indianapolis Feis was held on June 14th, 2014 at the Indiana State Fair Grounds Exposition Center. This is the second time we have attended the Indy Feis, although this year it was held at a new venue.

Venue

This was the first time the feis was at this venue and there are mixed feelings from lots of people on it. It is a fairgrounds building with a concrete floor but it was big and fully enclosed and it was climate controlled, unlike another fair grounds building we all know, but I wont go there right now 😉

The provided a nice map of the venue that might be a good reference.

Stages and Seating

There were 6 stages made of plywood, and the one that I mentally measured was a very good size at 32 x 32. That was a PC/OC stage and I cannot say if the grades stages were the same size.

Being plywood, there was the traditional issues that go along with that type floor. I saw one fall and numerous slips on the stage I was viewing. The feis committee did mop the stage during lunch however, so they tried to keep up with maintenance.

Seating wasn’t bad, and I never saw all the chairs full on the stage we were on. There were those that decided that chairs were better suited for their gear, and on some stages, people actually took some of the chairs and formed them into their own little camping area. You know my thoughts on this topic, but this time, other feis goers captured the event in a photo. smh

Camping and Access

Camping wasn’t horrible, admittedly no where near the best I had seen either, but they tried. Seems like each stage had an area behind the viewers seats so people could stow gear, and the far end of the venue and along the outer walls had more areas, so you could probably find a place to park your gear.

Access in general was pretty good. I found the main issue was people standing in the aisles between the viewers chairs to watch the comps. You could usually find another way around through.

Awards and Results

Both Awards and Results were along one wall on the side of the venue, out of the way but still convenient to get to.

There were chairs for viewers in the champs results area which not all feiseanna do, so that was good. They did have room, and probably could have used more chairs there. I was also a little disappointed to see a few dancers held chairs with their solo dresses, so some of the parents had to stand to see results.

Parking

Lots of parking, but not all close. There was a $5 charge for parking which was a surprise to us and apparently to other attendees. Not that $5 is a big cost, but if you are not expecting it, and don’t have cash, it can be an annoyance.

Other

One other thing I heard complaints about was the directions on the feis site. I did not use them but heard some complaints from those that did, that the directions could have had some more details.

And speaking of finding the feis, if you tell your GPS 1202 W 38th instead of 1202 E 38th, you will end up at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, a lovely building and grounds. Just trust me on this one 🙁

Judges

3 Judges, attentive and pretty good comments considering the size of some of the comps I saw. No complaints.

Music

OK, here is where I heard the most complaints. Each stage had their own musician, which is always good because shared musicians tend to cause delays. Not the musicians themselves mind you, but the stages waiting to get caught up or to catch up as the case may be.

More than one dancer on the stage we were on complained about the tempo of some of the music, and also the ability to hear it. As a viewer, I could hear music from everywhere so I could understand how the dancers might have issues. TGC had a start issue on one of her dances, and that has never been an issue for her (not making excuses, just commenting on the music).

I also saw a musician play the wrong song. The dancers danced anyway, and it was not until the 1st set of dancers had nearly finished their steps that the judges realized what was going on and stopped them. They were able to redo their dance.

Not sure what the problem was, might be a musician thing, but I can’t help but wonder if the acoustics in the Expo Center contributed to the issues.

Food

There were three food stands, but it appeared that two were not as fully equipped as the third. You could get drinks, corndogs and few other items at all three, but if you wanted grill items you needed to stand in the long line for the third stand.

Prices seemed very reasonable but I cannot speak to the quality as we did not eat at the venue.

Vendors

The usual suspects. If you have been to a Mid-America feis you know who they are. There was some nic nacs and non-feis swag on top of the typical feisessities (feis necessities). You can see the vendor list here. Oh, and if you follow me on Facebook, you already know there were Irish M&Ms 🙂

Results

Results for PC/OC, for TGC’s comp anyway, were out in about 75 minutes, which has been close to the norm. The awards were off to one side of the venue, behind the stages and the vendors. There were chairs for viewers as mentioned above, but there was room for more and they needed them. Lots of younger dancers sitting on the floor between the chairs and the podium, and lots of people standing behind the chairs.

At most PC/OC feis I have attended, the hard and soft shoe results are announced first, followed by the overall standings. They did it the opposite way here, announcing the overall first, and then the hard shoe and soft shoe results. And they did not allow time for the dancers to leave the podium between overall and the ‘shoes’, so you had a number of dancers standing there, kind of awkwardly.

I prefer when they announce the ‘shoes’ first personally. It gives an idea of how your dancer might have placed overall and you can prepare mentally a bit better 😉

Feis Flow

The flow was great. I heard a few comments that comps on a few stages, were moving along and from start to finish for us was less than 2 hours. Kudos on keeping it moving.

Scoring

Kind of torn on scoring. If we had been in last years venue, I think overall the feis would have faired much better. But, the venue issues combined with the music issues and I am afraid I would have to give this years feis somewhere around 6.5 to 7. We will be back though!

What did you think?

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The Indianapolis Feis was held on June 8th, 2013 at the Indianapolis Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana.

A NOTE OF THANKS! Some of you may have seen my tweets where we screwed up and failed to register for this feis. Realizing our mistake the Wednesday before the feis, I tweeted on Thursday what happened and that we would miss it. One of the moms from the school hosting the feis offered assistance and put me in touch with the registrar who gladly accepted our late registration, even though it was past the deadline. They turned a negative into a big positive.

NOTE: I am sorry to say since we left for vacation literally right after the feis, and I am just now getting to the review, nearly two weeks after the event, I may be a little light on the details. You do enough of these things and they all blend together.

Venue – This is the first time I have attended the Indianapolis Feis and the first feis I have attended at the Indianapolis Convention Center, and I thought it was excellent as a feis venue.

There was lots of room for camping but I thought stage layout was a bit cramped, especially for the two stages right as you walked in the door. The seating for those two backed up to each other with only about 10 feet or so as a walkway between. People tended to congregate in that area to view the dancing which made walking through there very difficult, and I am sorry to say, a lot of the time it was feis volunteers that were adding to the traffic jam.

This is another feis with huge stages. The smaller ones were 28 x 24 and the larger ones 32 x 32. I did not see any slip or trip issues and heard no complaints about stage condition. I seem to remember them mopping the stages but I am also suffering from vacation brain.

Seating was more than adequate for the OC & PC stages but was more limited for the other stages.

Feis results were posted on a big wall in the main hall outside the dance area, and awards were in a room on the other side of that same hallway, so it was all convenient.

Parking was very adequate and was only $5, but apparently we chose the farthest possible parking garage from where the actual dancing was, and walked for about 10 – 15 minutes to get to the dance hall.

Vendors were at one end of the dance hall/room kind of off by themselves. Concessions and bathrooms were outside the main area in the same hall as the results and awards.

Venue Score: 8.5 I think it could be better if they plan stage a little farther apart, otherwise great.

Judges – Daughter danced 2 times and had 2 different judges. That is what I like to see, but I determined the pattern for judge rotation was every hour, so it was possible to be judged multiple times by the same judge depending on how the comps ran. At least there was an obvious effort to rotate judges so kudos.

Judge Score: 8

Music – As far as I could tell, each stage had its own musician and there did not seem to be any issues, and I heard no complaints about the music.

Musician Score: 9.5

Food – Alright, gotta admit it, complete brain fart on this one… call it vacation fuzz, but I really don’t recall all the details, so, I won’t even include this. I can say I do not recall any real positives or negatives though.

Food Score: NA

Vendors – George the shoe guy, the feis tshirts, the wig ladies, the ribbon key fob lady, some jewelry etc… so over all, not terrible. See a complete list of the vendors.

Vendor Score: 7

Results – OK, this was this feis’s (what is the possessive of that word?) big negative. Results were posted extremely slowly, extremely…. not Akron slow, but slow enough for people to grumble about it and for people who were posting the results to apologize as they came out.

Results issues were compounded by technical difficulties and results came out both hand printed and from a printer.

Awards were right across from the results, so that was good.

Results Score: 4.5

Feis Flow -Not too bad. My daughters dances were split by lunch(which seemed to run long to me) and that always slows things down.

The stage we were on moved pretty well. The morning shift really seemed to have it together, and had dancers lined up and ready to go as soon as possible. The afternoon shift was not quite as organized. Here is where vacation fog sets in again… and the details are limited.

Feis Flow Score: 7

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

And the WTF Rating – a 7.41. A couple adjustments, could easily be higher, especially results 🙁

What did you think?

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