The 38th Akron Feis was held on May 24th, 2014.

This was our first trip to Akron and I can honestly say we won’t be going back. My head is still spinning from the day. I just don’t get why so many like this particular Feis.

Venue

Yes, we all know that it is held in a barn-like structure on the fairgrounds, but it was so dusty and dirty that our skin was gritty by the end of the day. For anyone who suffers from allergies this is not the place to be hanging around for hours on end. Camping was so crowded and it was hard to move around without walking through another families’ area. It did not help that every 10 minutes an announcement was made threatening disqualification of your dancer if you failed to stay within the blue tape boundaries. There was not enough space for the amount of people in proportion to the size of the venue.

Parking

The parking lot was all loose gravel and it made it difficult to pull or push anything with wheels. We ended up carrying the Zuca and the cooler (along with all the other stuff).

Feis Flow

Our stage (novice dancer) was super fast. The pace was a bit much for many of the girls around us and many parents were complaining that they needed to slow down. We started at 11:00 with the LJ and were done with all 6 dances by 12:15. There were no chairs or clear staging area for the dancers to check in and wait to take the stage. They were standing the whole time on concrete intermixed with parents who were standing side stage watching or camping.

Judges

Awful! We only saw 2. Most of the girls (mine included) had the same judge for 5/6 dances. Judges were rotated once while we danced. The first judge started the stage and judged every dance for the 200 and 300 level dancers and was there for the 400 LJ’s and group A of the RL. He rotated out and another sat down for the remainder of the 400 level’s 4-5 dances. I noticed that the same judge returned to that stage after lunch break while we were waiting on results.

Results

We finished dancing at 12:15 and results for all 6 dances were posted by 1:00. Not bad. We only had to wait around for the TJ and TS results once we walked over to the results area. The boards were very hard to read and there were a lot of mistakes with some dances being listed 2 times in multiple age groups. Lots of crossing out and tiny writing over the cross outs that were hard even for someone with 20/20 vision to read. The 2 people working the results table had to take dancers cards and then go read the boards to tell dancers if they placed or not for a few of the dances.

Awards

They were pretty cheap for the grades. 1st-3rd place received tiny pin on ribbons with a small medal attached. 4th-6th received skinny ribbons. My dancers 2nd place medal fell apart and broke in the car on the way home. She was quite irritated. One of her 4th place ribbons was already starting to fray on the ends.

Food

No review. We didn’t eat there and left as soon as we picked up awards.

Summary

My dancer did not enjoy this Feis at all and has asked that we not go back. I completely agree with her. We will skip this one in the future.

What did every one else think?

Did you go, do you agree? Rate the feis below.

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