The 1st Annual Hurley School Feis was held at The Showplace Arena in Upper Marlboro, MD on may 25th, 2014.
Venue
A horse arena. Yes, I said horse arena. When we pulled into the parking lot we were immediately greeted by a parking attendant who promptly showed us where to park. The arena was large with several layers of stadium seating. Very spacious with plenty of room to spread out. There were several rows between each family. On the main floor were 8 stages, 3 champ and 5 grades (switching occurred later in the day). Each stage had its own musician and there were only a few stages stopped for small amounts of time. Surprisingly, the music was easy to hear when the stages were so close to each other. Competitions ran roughly to schedule, with some running early. Hands down the best part was the abundance of bathrooms. During multiple trips during the day, there was never a line. I have never seen this before, but it was a welcome surprise. Very helpful parent volunteers. Overall a very nice venue – which included a nice hamstring workout lugging feis gear up several flights of stairs in the stadium seating. Did I mention no lines for the bathrooms?
