Feis At The Falls Review

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The Feis At The Falls was held on August 11th, 2012 at The Conference Center Niagara Falls, Niagara Falls, NY.  Ever thought about going and didn’t know what to expect? Well here ya go…

Venue – The venue was nice and had two areas with six stages set up for ‘pre-champs’ in one, and two stages in the other area for Champs. Admittedly, since my daughter is in the Open/Prizewinner level, I don’t venture into champ land much, so I am talking about the area I was in. The stages were a nice size, had ample seating and good room between. The camping seemed plentiful but there were, as always, your ‘camping squatters’ who set up in the viewing seats and spread out their stuff. Can you tell that is a pet peeve? Parking was plentiful but pricey.

Judges – Three different judges rotated through my daughters 5 dances, so rotation was good. Two thumbs up.

Music – As far as I could tell, 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.

Lesson Learned: If you are a musician, don’t keep your side table to close to the stage because there is a good chance one of the dancers will launch it into the air with a kick while performing, sending your coffee, cell phone, etc… into the crowd. I know, it happened… I laughed.

Food – Typical convention center food at typical convention center prices. There is a TGI Fridays across the street, as well as a Starbucks, and some hotels with their own restaurants, so there were options.

Vendors – Standard vendors, the feis tshirt guy, Rutherford shoes, some wigs, clips, crowns and hair accessories, jewelry, etc… There was some Guinness shirts and Irish swag, but it was limited. There was also a window cling guy who had some fun dance designs, but I decided not to buy until he sells a ‘tag-a-long cause he had to brother’ cling to go with the dance Mom and Dad and dancer clings. If you are interested, you can view the vendor list.

I was also impressed by the dress area. Usually it is a disorganized mess, but these guys had it together. Dress sellers had to register their dresses, pay a small fee, and then pass the info and dress on to the ‘dress shop staff.’ The staff arranged the dresses by ages for easy browsing. Well done there too.

Results – well done. I would say the results were out in under 15 minutes for most dances (that I saw) but there was the occasional longer wait. They appeared to have a great system, higher tech than most, and the folks giving out the awards pulled up results on computer monitors. Well run. Can I make a suggestion guys? Ever consider tweeting the results? Just a thought 😉

Feis Flow – I thought this feis was very well run. They provided lunches for the judges at the stage tables so there was no ‘lunch break’ per se. It was so smooth that our last dance, the second to last one on our stage, was done before 2 p.m. That’s kind of unheard of in my experience. Very well done! (a local dance Mom did report that that was not common and it was the first time she had seen it at this feis too).

And the WTF Rating – What can I say, overall I was very impressed and give this feis a 9.0.

Feis At The Falls – The Tourism Review

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We got to Niagara Falls on Friday night and stayed through Monday morning, so I figured I would add this bonus ‘tourism review.’

Niagara Falls American SideWhat can I say, if you go to this feis, you are literally a short walk away from an impressive natural attraction. We saw the falls every day during our walks and drove down one night to see the falls lit up. If you have never been, its one of those ‘you gotta see it’ places.

Niagara Falls Canadian SideWe stayed on the Canadian side, which actually has more attractions than the American side. You can visit places like Hard Rock (actually on both sides), Planet Hollywood, Margaritaville (which has Alexander Keith’s on tap, a fabulous beer I first had in Halifax where it is brewed), Ripleys Believe It Or Not, and lots of wax museums. If you have ever been to Myrtle Beach, or Gatlinburg, it’s kinda like that, with a Canadian accent. I would consider it a ‘family tourist area’ but tattoo parlors and head shops were evident on the main street. We stayed up on Lundy’s Lane, a few miles from the main area and there were some more mature shops in plain view, if you know what I mean.

Falls ManorProbably one of the most ethnically diverse areas we have visited, there were lots of food choices, 75% of which appeared to be pizza places. We didn’t have a bad meal, and there was lots of good beer. We had a great breakfast up on Lundy’s Lane at Falls Manor Dining Lounge, who claimed to have the best breakfast in town. Considering the crowd and number of locals, and the food, I would have to agree. We also found a great local bar called Chip N Charlies up on Lundy’s Lane that had great wings, pizza, fish and chips and burgers, and was CONSIDERABLY less expensive than all the other meals we had while in the area (including breakfast at Falls Manor and we had beer with our meal at CnC). Worth the drive up the lane.

Our hotel was less expensive but older and would not suit all tastes. There were lots of other options though.

Parking was everywhere, but was between $5 and $15 a day. The good thing is that once parked, you can walk everywhere.

All in all, if you go to the feis and have not been to this area before, I would recommend staying another day or two to have a little fun in there. If you can, get a hotel with a kitchenette to save on eating-out costs because the whole area is pricey, but as the kids say, YOLO.