Detroit Feis 2014, Grades Review

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The 2014 Detroit International Feis was held on Saturday, June 7th at the Ultimate Soccer Arena in Pontiac, Michigan

Venue

Huge, open space to hold a Feis. There were 4 stages set aside for the grades and there was ample spacing between each so that music didn’t bleed over and confuse the dancers. There was plenty of space set aside for camping and bleacher seating was always available when sought out. My only suggestion would be to set up a few practice areas with a flat/dance friendly surface. It was difficult for my dancer to warm up and run through her dances on the turf areas and the rolled out temporary surfaces that covered the turf areas.

Parking

The parking lot was large and parking was free. We arrived an hour after the Feis started and were able to park in the 3rd row right in front of the doors. I did notice when we were leaving for the day that an arena employee was out front with a giant golf cart “limo” offering rides to families if they so desired. Nice touch!

Feis Flow

For the size of the Feis and the amount of competitors, I think it went really fast even though we were there until 4:30. We really enjoyed an actual lunch break with time to rest and regroup in between soft and hard shoe dances. Our stage was very timely and there were no real lulls in the dancing except for a 10 minute break when the musician needed to run to the endless line in the bathroom!

Judges

5 judges for 5 dances. Doesn’t get much better than that.

Results/Awards

I will admit I was very leery of how this would all play out because this Feis doesn’t split grades until numbers in a comp reach 30 and with some comps reaching 28, I thought there would be a lot of tears across the board with so few having the opportunity to place. I was pleased to learn that the Feis committee required the judges to place at least half of the total comp numbers regardless of how small or large they were. Medals were awarded 1-5 place and ribbons were given for 6 and 7 place winners. We have a rule studio wide that results are not to be checked until the end of all your dances so I can’t speak to how quickly the results were posted on the wall but they showed up on Feisworx within 10 -15 minutes of the completed dance. I was able to show the awards staff my daughters HP results via Feisworx before it was posted on the wall and we were able to collect all her medals and leave before it came out from the results room.

Food

Total disaster for anyone who attempted to order from the concession stands. They were completely overwhelmed and could not keep up with the throngs of families that all showed up during the lunch break. I spoke with people who waited over an hour for their food that never was produced. Lots of people were issued refunds and were not able to eat. The venue did not allow outside food or coolers to be brought in but didn’t really enforce it. Saw lots of people eating picnic lunches in the camping areas and also several who gave up on the concessions and made a run down the street to the corner to one of the several fast food restaurants located there. We had ample time to eat our lunch and snacks that we packed and enjoyed the break outside in the sun on the front lawn.

Vendors

Standard Feis fare. Nothing out of the ordinary there. I will say that I did like the choices and the prices for the Feis T-shirts being sold at the registration table.

Summary

This was one of our favorite Feisanna to date. I am very glad we decided to give this one a try and we will definitely go back next year! On a side note: I have been told that the Feis committee is reevaluating their split policy for next year. I hope they lower it to the more customary 24 split guideline most follow.

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Detroit International Feis 2014, PC/OC Review

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b7516be3d6a350f0bb91a148aef24a62The Detroit International Feis was held on June 7th, 2014 at the Ultimate Soccer Arena, in Pontiac, Michigan. I wrote a review for this feis last year, and with the exception of the date and one or two other items, I could pretty much copy and paste that here. I suggest reading that review as I am going to just annotate the differences here. It is good to see how things change.

Venue

Still love it. Probably one of my favorites. LOTS of room to literally run around if you want.

Stages & Seating

Stage setup was exactly like last year but this year since we were on one of the PC/OC stages I was able to figure out the stage size, which was 32 x 32. This feis, if I am not mistaken, has the biggest stages of any feis I have attended. Even the grades level stages are big at 24 x 32.

There was quite a bit of complaints from both parents and dancers about how slippery the stages were however. I heard from 3 separate parents on different stages as well as witnessed some of this myself. I did not see any falls, but there were lots of slips.

Contrary to last year, the feis team did not appear to be up on stage maintenance. CAVEAT – I left the building at lunch and cannot say if there was any mopping done then. Otherwise, I only saw one stage being swept. We took the precaution of using gaffers tape on TGC’s hard shoes, and we dampened her soft shoes with a wet towel before she danced and she did not seem to have any problems.

Seating was the same as last year, bleachers for stages 1 – 4 and lots of chairs for stage 6. I did not take note of how many chairs there were for stage 5, but there was plenty of room around the stage to set up your own chairs or blankets. Overall, seating was no problem.

Some people did complain that it was cold inside the venue, but I personally thought it was pleasant.

Camping & Access

Camping? Lots of it!, not all necessarily close to ‘your’ stage, but there was lots of room in the bleachers and if you were up to it, there was a ton of room where you could spread out behind stage 6.

Access did get a bit tight between the grades stages and the bleachers as people chose to stand in that area to view or have chats with their firends, but generally you could get through without too much issue.

Awards & Results

Grades results were posted on the far wall behind stage 6 as they were last year.

For PC/OC awards, the podium was set up in a far corner. Lots of room for viewers and dancers, and the distance from the stages didn’t cause any distraction for the stages. Great setup!

Parking

Seemed to be plenty but it filled up quick so you might have to park out in the boonies and hike in. They did provide a “shuttle” out to your car after the feis, but that didn’t help with your arrival necessarily.

The other thing they have done the past two years I have been to the feis was block off the circle up to the door. It would have been nice to have that for pickup and dropoff, especially for older spectators and others with mobility issues.

Judges

We had no problems with the judging. 3 judges for the stage we were on and they all seemed attentive. It was at this feis last year where I mentioned the ‘distracted’ judge after having seen him judge at one other feis. I think he is the one that got me started watching judge actions a bit closer. This feis though, no issues.

Music

Each stage had their own musician and from where we were sitting, I could not hear music from the other side of the room, so distraction was not an issue, at least on the far side of the venue. I cannot speak to the Grades levels where the stages where closer together.

There was one musician there that I heard playing, and admittedly I don’t dance, but I thought the tempo was off as he played. I did not hear any complaints at this feis, but I have heard issues with this particular musician in the past. This time I heard it for myself.

Food

OK, here is what many consider THE issue for this feis. On the feis website it states quite clearly:

  • NO COOLERS are allowed inside the facility, there is plenty of reasonably priced food available in the venue

WRONG!

Last year the setup was much better, with two concessions. This year, it had changed with the removal of the smaller concession and the addition of a Starbucks (or maybe I didn’t see that last year).

Food lines were outrageous, and food delivery was slow. They ran out of food and was able to scrape up just a pretzel for one of our school parents. I can understand the rules, but make sure you are able to back up the rules.

The saving grace was that the venue is a short drive from a major intersection with at least 5 popular fast food chains. We literally drove out, bought, came back and had a nice lunch (outside) before some people got their food in the line we had tried in the venue initially.

Vendors

Very similar, is not exactly like the past year. A nice selection of items, including knit and Guinness wear. You can see the list here. Sadly, no Irish M&Ms 🙁

Results

As mentioned above, the results for grades were posted on a far wall, away from the stages, and they could pick up their awards right next to the results display.

The PC/OC had their own corner for the podium and it was roomy and remote. Thought it was well done.

Feis Flow

It seemed like a very long day. Like last year, the lunch seemed to take forever and there was grumbling among the masses. We knew we probably wouldn’t start until after lunch, and that is exactly what happened, but you know as well as I that you can never really be sure, so we got there at 10am.

TGC did not dance till mid afternoon and her comp (which was kind of big) finished in about 30 minutes. Her awards were announced about 75 – 90 minutes later, which seems close to what we have experienced at other feis lately.

Scoring

If you have been reading my reviews for a while, you may have realized that I didn’t score the individual sections. It seems to me that the scoring does not always capture how I really felt about the feis, and either way, will probably differ from how the person next to me felt about the feis. I have chosen instead to list the facts and just tell you how I would grade it. As always, you can add your rating below 🙂

Overall, not a bad feis. Nothing was terrible and even the food and slippery stage issues had workarounds. And as for the long day, I was the one that got there early, and that is not the feis’ fault.

So, based on all that, I give this feis an 8.5

Don’t even need to think about whether we will be back or not, we will.

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Detroit International Feis

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50ffc40156882c9af9bec82a2a2af9c1The Detroit International Feis was held on June 1st, 2013 at the Ultimate Soccer Arena in Pontiac, Michigan.

Venue – This is the first time I have attended the Detroit Feis and the first feis I have attended at the Ultimate Soccer Arena, and I thought it was excellent as a feis venue.

There were six stages for the feis and compared to recent feiseanna I have been to, these were huge. I did the mental math for the one we were on at it was 32 x 24, which seemed to be the standard for the four under-champ stages, and the 2 champ stages were as big or bigger. Didn’t really do the mental math for those two.

The venue was huge so there was a lot of room between stages and for camping. Stands served as viewing seats for stages 1 – 4 and chairs were set up for stages 5 and 6, so there was plenty of seating. Instead of chairs for the dancers, there was a sideline bench, which I guess are readily available at a soccer stadium,  next to each stage. Considering the size of some of the comps, they probably could have added an additional bench to each stage for the dancers.

I did see a few dancers trip on one spot on stage 4, and saw and heard of some slipping issues, but the feis staff was proactive and they took breaks to mop the stages.

detroit2

Feis results were posted on a big wall in one corner of the room, and the awards were co-located in the same spot, so all very convenient.

Parking seemed adequate in front of the venue and was free. We got there when lots of people were showing up and easily found a spot a few hundred feet from the door.

Vendors were at one end of the room, and I personally thought they were a little close to stage 1 which had A LOT of dances on it, so it was fairly crowded to begin with. Concessions and bathrooms were outside the main area as well as a pub, but they were indoors and connected so were easy to get too. Wifi was available, but my 4G phone was faster.

Venue Score: 9.5  (not sure what a perfect venue is, maybe I will when I see it, but this one is pretty close) 

Judges – Daughter danced 4 times and had 4 different judges. You know me, that’s as good as it gets, but it seemed like the other stages did not have as good a rotation, so I have to deduct a little.

Remember ‘distracted judge’ from the Cleveland Feis last weekend, well he was back, and we were a little disheartened to see him as the first judge for my daughter. But, since the girl child placed first in that dance, we no longer see his distraction as an issue, in fact, that man is brilliant 😉

Judge Score: 8.5

Music – Each stage had a musician or two, and speakers for the stage, and there did not seem to be any issues, and I heard no complaints about the music.

Musician Score: 9.5

Food – A complete 180 from the food experience we had in Cleveland. One concession was drinks, smoothies, coffee, healthier snacks, some breakfast pastry kind of stuff, candy bars, etc and the prices were closer to convenience store prices (maybe a bit higher) but nowhere near some of the bigger venue pricing. Another area had hamburgers, pizza, wraps, chicken strips, etc.. all very good size and tasty. Three of us ate lunch for about $17 including food and drink.

There was also a pub on premise and although I did not venture upstairs to see it, the beer prices I saw at a beer cart downstairs were similar to what you would pay in your neighborhood bar, so who could complain?

Food Score: 8.5

Vendors – George the shoe guy,  the feis tshirts, the wig ladies, fun Irish stuff like Guinness jersies and Hanna Hats, a few artsy things, shortbread cookies, the engravers, etc… so over all, not bad. See a complete list of the vendors.  Not quite the selection of some, but a nice mix.

Vendor Score: 8

Results – I was surprised/impressed, and maybe I never paid attention before, but FeisWorx had results posted for the events in usually 30 minutes or less. Hard copies did not make it to the wall for closer to 45 – 60 minutes. When we went to get an award, the people at the table were kind of amazed Feis Worx already had them, and could not do anything for us until they received their hard copy.

Awards were right there with the results, and I liked the color coded ribbons that went with each specific medal, a bronze ribbon on the third place medal for example.

If there were any negatives, other than the amount of time it took results to get to the wall, for those people not clued into the FeisWorx connection, it was the fact that at some times, there was only one person working the awards, and if she was busy filing result sheets, people would be lined up waiting to pick awards up.

Thinking back, taking an hour to get to the wall would probably have irritated me if I did not notice the FeisWorx option, so I can only give a pretty good score for results.

Results Score: 7

Feis Flow -Not bad. My daughter danced 3 dances and a special reel. We started at 930ish and were done at about 3, and I think this was due mainly to a longer than average (in my opinion) lunch, and the special events being held after lunch instead of during like at other feiseanna.

I also saw that Stage 1 was loaded down with competitions and when our stage was finishing, Stage 1 was at about the two thirds point on their dance list. I admit, I have never run a feis, but I think there was plenty of room in the venue to add at least two more stages and spread out the load a little bit. There were two judges sitting at one of the stages for a while, so it appears they may have had the judges available, but that is an assumption. Seating for viewers may be an issue here, but I thought there were too many chairs at Stage 6, and possibly stage 5 too. (Remember, all my opinion).

Also, the specials dances seemed really unorganized. They were supposed to start right after lunch and the feis staff did not seem to have any idea exactly where they were going to be held 10 – 15 minutes after lunch was supposed to end. When they got it sorted out, the girl child told me the judge for hers gathered the dancers and asked how many steps, how many dancers at a time, etc… so she (the judge) did not seem ready.

That last comment was more about the specials, and in general, I thought the feis was run fairly well.

Feis Flow Score: 7.5

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 – 8.125

And the WTF Rating – a 8.35. A very respectable score, great job Detroit!

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