Great Lakes Feis 2014, Grades Review/0 Comments/in , , /by

image001The 12th Annual Great Lakes Feis was held August 17th, 2014 at the Lansing Center in Lansing, MI.

This was our first trip to the Great Lakes Feis and we really enjoyed it.

We did the Feis as a double Feis with Rose City. I was saddened to hear this feis was moving dates in 2015 to the last weekend in July. Several of our friends from our home studio wanted to try the double feis in August like we did. Not sure how July will work for our family.

I am adding the grade viewpoint to compliment the PC/OC review from WTF himself.

Venue

Stages and Seating

My dancer didn’t say anything about the Grade stage being slippery. She did say it didn’t have much spring to it and felt it the next day. I didn’t see anyone slipping on our stage.

Chairs seemed adequate; we actually gave up our seats and used our Zuca in the camping area. Plenty of space to watch our dancer each time.

Camping and Access

Lots of room to camp. We are bringing a blanket and chairs next time. Just having some bags and a Zuca made our spot prime crossing for everyone else. If you come, bring a blanket to claim your spot and limit others stepping close to your dress bag. Coming from a region with lots of small venue competitions, it was a treat to be able to spread out and not find other people piling on top of your bags.

It was easy to stand close to the chairs and watch each dance. The space works so that everyone can see their dancer.

Awards and Results

Medals for the Grade awards were nice. Bright, shiny and included ribbons. Yes, we have been to a Feis where you had to purchase a ribbon for your medals.

Results posted quickly but a few were skipped. My dancer discovered she could ask at the laptops so she skipped waiting for 1 or 2 to be written on the results wall. When we left, they still had not been written up on the wall. We like being able to get a printout of results and comments. My dancers poured over her comments on our drive home.

Parking

Arriving early, we were able to park on the street. Weekend free parking is great. Parking rates were typical but we were able to skip it and park on the street.

Judges

Judges rotated throughout the day. Even though my dancer stayed on 1 stage, she had 2 judges. Nice and helpful comments too. She received comments on everything except for Traditional Set. She entered the Art Competition and received handwritten comments. The Art Judge took him time and really judged each piece. She finished dancing before lunch break but waiting an hour or more after lunch break for the Art Competition to post. We always wait for something to post, we were amused that it was Art this time.

Music

Music was good. My dancer had no trouble hearing her music. The set up worked with each stage and very little bleed in music between them.

Food

We stopped at Tim Horton’s on the way in so didn’t try the food. Our friends tried the Nachos and said they were typical Feis food and happily munched away.

Vendors

Nice selection of Vendors. The t-shirt vendor added the touch of a shamrock to mark your dancer on the list of names. My dancer was thrilled with the little shamrock by her name.

Feis Flow

Feis flow on our stage was awesome. We were done by lunch since my dancer was Novice hardshoe and Prizewinner soft shoe. Even the hardshoe after lunch went quickly. One group of Prizewinner had to dance Hornpipe followed immediately by Treble Jig. The judge and stage monitors gave them a couple minute breather between dances.

Scoring

Scoring seemed reasonable. My dancer was happy with her results. Lots of places posted so plenty of medals to go around.

We will go back if this Feis fits into our schedule.

Where You There?

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Great Lakes Feis 2014, PC/OC Review/0 Comments/in , , /by

image001The 12th Annual Great Lakes Feis was held August 17th, 2014 at the Lansing Center in Lansing, MI.

We have attended the Great Lakes Feis numerous times and we really like it. We have been going longer than I have been writing reviews, here are the reviews and additional posts I did write.

I was saddened to hear this feis was moving dates in 2015 to the last weekend in July, which is the same weekend as our local Celtic Festival where our school volunteers and dances, so if you go next year, don’t look for me, afraid I won’t be there.

Like my last post on the Dayton Feis, the basics for this feis are almost exactly the same as last year, so instead of repeating, I suggest you read that one first and then come back here for my thoughts on the PC/OC aspects of this feis, which was new for us since last year.

Venue

Stages and Seating

Just like last year. The stages were slippery again this year, but I did not see any stage maintenance this year. Not saying there was none, but I did not see any on our stage. TGC mentioned it was really slippery when she came off the stage, and the very next dancer had a slip that stopped the dancing. Other than that, last year sums it up.

Chairs seemed adequate, but… there was some feis shaming, you know where to look 😉

Camping and Access

Like 2013, lots of it.

Awards and Results

Awards for the PC/OC levels were nice, looked like most OC placers got some Beleek ware, while the top 3 PC dancers got something similar. Other PC placers received BIG medals to show their accomplishments. Only first place received sashes for both PC/OC, which I thought a bit odd.

The PC/OC awards were held on an elevated stage. There were lots of seats for viewers, and the dancers had easy access to the stage if they were called. There was no podium on the stage, so all winners just lined up, which I thought could have been handled a bit better if they had had a podium.

Parking

Parking seemed good, but like last year, we parked the car at the hotel (which was attached to the venue via walkway) and just left it there until we left after the feis.

Judges

This is a repeat of every PC/OC review I have done. Three judges, all seemed attentive and watched all the dancers equally.

Music

Again, pretty much just like last year, even the standing musician was there.

Thinking back, I did not notice any music bleed since the stages were separated pretty well, at least on our end of the hall.

If I had to make any comments, it might be around the announcements heard throughout the hall. They were loud, which was good, but I could see how they could be distracting to the dancers because they happened frequently. Even happened during the PC/OC awards which came to a complete stop until the announcement was over.

Food

I only bought a cup of coffee which was reasonable. TGC had her own money so she bought some chicken which she said was ‘good, not greasy’. Prices seemed to be reasonable for a convention center type venue.

Vendors

Seemed like the same vendors as last year. We did find some Irish candies, but sadly, no Irish M&Ms.

Results

I thought the results were pretty good. It took between 75 to 90 minutes for the results to come out, but lunch breaks had started and I am not sure if that negatively impacted that any. I did hear that earlier results came out slower, but I think they were about average.

Based on my comments from Dayton, where I did not like them doing overall results first and then individual shoe results, GLF did shoe results first and then overall. IMHO it is much better that way.

Feis Flow

From our perspective, it was great! From start to finish in TGCs comp (all the dancers, not just her dances) was only about 30 minutes. Granted the comp was a little smaller than what we are used to, but they kept things moving.

Scoring

No problem scoring this one, easily an 8 – 8.5. They do a nice job at the PC/OC level and I would highly recommend this feis if you have not been.

Sadly, unless they change the dates again, or our Celtic Festival moves it dates, or we move, we probably won’t be back, but you should go!

What did you think?

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Great Lakes Feis 2013

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image001The 11th Annual Great Lakes Feis was held on August 18th, 2013 at the Lansing Convention Center in Lansing, Michigan.

This is the third, fourth, ah who knows, time I have done the Great Lakes Feis. You can see last years review here but that was before I had scoring for each section of the feis, and just had an overall score.

Venue – The venue is great. The feis uses what I assume to be the biggest hall in the center and there is plenty of room.

There were six stages with numbers 1 and 2 at one end of the hall for OC and PC, and 3 – 6 more towards the other end for the other level dancers. The stages were huge compared to many feiseanna I have attended. The smallest I saw, if my visual measuring system is even close to accurate, was about 24′ x 28′, and the stage we were on was closer to 32′ x 32′. There was also good separation between the stages, on the order of tens of feet, if that makes sense, not a few feet or attached like other recent feiseanna.

I did see multiple slips and did not see any mopping during the day, so stage maintenance could have been a little better, but overall, stage condition seemed pretty good.

There were plenty of chairs for spectators and a good amount of room behind them for the standers.

There was more camping then there were campers, which is a unique experience at a feis. People were able to spread out which is not what they did, which struck me a bit odd. I don’t try to figure out what people are thinking at feis anymore.

Results and awards were at the far end of the hall, opposite end from the PC/OC stages, and were at tables right next to each other so it was all very convenient. The champs had a separate stage, still within the hall for their awards that was near their stages, and far enough away from the other stages so as not to be a distraction.

Parking was available at different garages near the venue, but this year we just left our car in the feis hotel parking, which was convenient considering the hotel was attached to the venue by an enclosed pedestrian walkway. I am afraid I cannot comment on the price of other parking in the area.

Vendors were grouped together in an area between the champ stages and the other stages which provided even more separation.

Venue Score: 9.5  

Judges – The girl child danced 3 times and was judged by 1 judge. Like the Milwaukee Feis last week, the dances were grouped very close together so rotation is limited… HOWEVER, in between the first two dances the judge on her stage changed and then changed back. The third dance was the first after lunch, and the same judge came back to the stage, which I think would have been a perfect switch time. I am really torn on this one because the same judge for all dances can be unfair to the dancers, but there is that whole ‘all close together’ thing, but there were opportunities. You can see the judge list here, although I did see judges working that are not on the list.

Judge Score: 6

Music – Each stage had their own musician and the stages were spaced far enough apart where music bleed over was not an issue.

An interesting sidebar – one musician, an older gentlemen who played the violin (or is it a fiddle?) stood the whole day while he played. I had not seen that. This however is the same guy who apparently came to the feis on a skateboard, so who I am to judge.

TGC did comment that the music on one of the stages she was not, on was ‘funner and kinda techno’ than the music she had, which begs the question, do they ever rotate musicians?

You can see who played here.

Musician Score: 10

Food – Convention center food at reasonable prices, $4 – $5 for a sandwich/burger, salads, pretzels etc… The popcorn chicken and fries were pretty good, I shared with TGC, so overall, not bad.

Food Score: 8

Vendors –  George the shoe guy was there, and two wig tables, which was good because we showed up first thing to get a new wig. NOTE: If you let your dancer dye her hair, consider the dance wig first!  Some nice souveniry type items, hats, shirts, etc, some jewelry, and the tshirt guy and a photographer. A nice little selection. View the vendors.

Vendor Score: 7.5 

Results – Mixed feelings on results. I was told they would be doing results electronically on QuickFeis but I did not see that being utilized during the actual event. The volunteers were taking pictures of the board and posting them on Facebook, but that was after they had already been posted (obviously). It wasn’t like a FeisWorx feis where they are posted in minutes, most times before they hit the results board in the hall.

Time to post on the wall varied, and appeared to be around 30 minutes for TGC’s first 2 dances, but it was closer to 45 – 6o minutes for her last result.

I did appreciate the fact that the awards table were able to print out the dancers score sheet with comments after their last dance had been posted. It is a nice touch that you can see what the judges had to say right away.

Results Score: 8

Feis Flow – Not too bad. We started at 11ish and had the last dance and results by 2. That would have been quicker had they not stopped for lunch when TGC had already checked in, and they went a little more than an hour for the lunch break.

I do like close dances even if it can affect judge rotation.

Feis Flow Score: 8

Scoring

2 part system in place, the feis score consisting of Judges, Music, Results and Flow and then the overall WTF rating for all items.

Feis Score – 8 – could have been better if the judges rotated at least once.

And the WTF Rating – a 8.14. Good Job Great Lakes!

What did you think?

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And speaking of the Great Lakes Feis

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Remember Rachel from MI at the Dayton Feis, well she was was there again, dancing against my daughter. Thankfully she got the last dance she needed to move up to Prelim, and she didn’t beat my daughter every time this time 😉  Sorry, I was nice the last time, I am going to be a normal Dad this time 🙂

Whoever told Rachel’s Mom I posted the last post, don’t tell her about this one 😉

Great Lakes Feis Review

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The Great Lakes Feis was held on August 19th, 2012 at The Lansing Center, Lansing, MI.

Venue – The venue was great and and all the stages were in the same huge room. The champs at one end of the venue and everyone else at the other. I made it sound bigger than it is, and it isn’t THAT big, but there was good separation. The stages were a good size, had good seating and room between. The camping was very plentiful so the ‘camping squatters’ were annoying. You know them, the ones who set up in the viewing seats and spread out their stuff.

Parking was available a short walk from the center and was about $2 an hour where we parked.

Judges – Two different judges rotated through my daughters 4 dances, so rotation was OK. We had one judge view soft shoe, and another viewed hard shoe dances, and my daughter didn’t place in soft and placed really well in hard shoe.

We have all experienced the judge that appears to have a preference for a style (or something that puts our children at a perceived disadvantage) and I sort of felt that occurred this weekend, so I wonder if there is a way they can switch judges between dances and not ‘shoes.’ I guess we all go thorough that once in a while. One of the positive things about this feis is another reason they probably couldn’t do it for this feis (see Feis Flow below).

Music – Like Niagara Falls last week, there was a musician at each stage and the musician at our stage took very short breaks, and only a few of them, so music was continuous. Great job on the musicians.

Food – Typical convention center food at typical convention center prices. They did have salad and wraps that were not bad, and added some healthy to the normal convention fare.

Vendors – Standard vendors, the feis tshirt guy, George the shoe guy, some wigs, clips, crowns and hair accessories etc… There was some nice Irish gift things, more jewelry than usual, Guinness shirts and Irish swag. If you are interested, you can view the vendor list.

Results – well done. I would say the results were out in under 20 – 30 minutes for most dances. Also like Niagara Falls, the folks giving out the awards pulled up results on computer monitors. Well run. Same suggestion I made for Niagara Falls I make to you guys? Ever consider tweeting the results? I say that hoping I didn’t miss them.

Feis Flow – I thought this feis was very well run for a different reason than last weeks. They grouped the dances by age, grouped so tight that there was only one dance between my daughters dances. If it wasn’t for the fact the lunch break fell in there we would have been done in about an hour, but instead, she was the first dance after lunch, but we were still done by 1.

Good thing about this, as long as you have a system for knowing when you will start, you won’t be there to long, but if you plan wrong, you may miss your whole set. The bad thing, other than maybe missing your set, is the potential to have poorer judge rotation (see above).

They had a lunch break, but at least on our stage it was kept to about an hour so that was 0good.

And the WTF Rating – Overall I was impressed and give this feis a 8.5.