The Buckeye State Feis was held on April 25th, 2015 at the The Bricker Building at The Ohio Expo Center in Columbus, OH.
This is a Community Review with comments by the attendees. If you attended please add your thoughts below.
Please see the Community Review page for suggested comment subjects and a other posting suggestions if you are going to add your thoughts.
Thanks
The 6th Annual Buckeye State Feis was held on April 5th, 2014 at the The Franklin County Veterans Memorial in Columbus, Ohio.
NOTE: This is for the PC/OC stages and results. If you have comments for the Grades stages and results for the feis, please contact me and I can share them in a separate post, thanks!
Venue – This is the fifth feis I have attended at Vets Memorial. Buckeye has been held here every year since its inauguration, and we have been to all except one due to a dance school change.
I like the venue. It is big and there is plenty of room for the stages to be spread and still be good size. There were six stages, but I was focused on Stage 1, the OC stage (but some PC comps ended up dancing on it), and Stage 2, the PC stage. Stage 1 was 40 x 32, and stage 2 was 32 x 32, which, if I remember correctly, are the biggest stages I have seen at a ‘normal’ feis.
I did see some a few slips and falls, but the feis volunteers were very proactive trying to stay on top of stage maintenance. Dancing came to a stop on one of the stages so they could mop it after one fall, and they kept a wet towel by the side of the stage so dancers could wet their shoes before dancing.
Seating was plentiful for the most part. There were some feis shaming incidents, but in general we were always able to sit to watch TGC dance.
Results for champs were held over on one side of the hall, away from most stages which was good, but, it was too close to the concessions. During one awards ceremony, they had three large comps, along with the parents and other observers waiting to hear results, and it was so packed that some dancers had a hard time getting to the front if they were called.
Camping, I thought, was pretty good, with lots of areas set aside to store gear. This made the feis shaming incidents more obnoxious because there was really no need to take up seats with gear.
The concessions (except the actual built-in stands) were grouped together on one side of the hall, and vendors were setup together towards the front of the hall. Very convenient, but see the note about Champ results above.
Parking was good and all located right next to the hall but may have involved a bit of a walk depending on when you arrived. There was a drop zone for dancers and gear. Parking was $7.
Venue Score: 8.5
Judges – The PC/OC stages, as always, had 3 judges each. They were attentive, kept things moving, and took very few breaks.
Judge Score: 9.5
Music – Lots of space between the stages, with each stage having their own musician. No musical confusion, and although I could hear other musicians from where I was sitting between dances, I could not hear them when our stage musician played.
Musician Score: 9.5
Food – They had the normal convention center fare in the halls concession stands, but they also brought in outside vendors, a gyro stand, a Hawaiian shaved ice truck, a specialty coffee truck, and some others. Prices were OK, but I thought drink prices were a bit gougy, and you weren’t ‘supposed’ to bring in coolers.
Food Score: 8
Vendors – George the shoe guy, with his daughter who follows WTF on FB… Hi George’s daughter! 🙂 A tie-dye t-shirt guy, the typical wig and feis jewelry booths, and one other small jewelry table. No real Irish swag, and TGC was disappointed that no one had any Irish candies 🙁 You can see a list of the vendors on the feis page.
Vendor Score: 7.5
Results – We got there kind of early (as usual) so there was a few hours between when we arrived and when TGC danced. We watched other champ comps, and it seemed that results for them were very slow. After TGC danced however, it was only about an hour before her results were announced, which, while not the best we have seen at this level, was better than I expected after monitoring for the previous few hours.
Results Score: 8.5
Feis Flow – Feis flow was pretty good. From the start of TGC’s first dance to the presentation of her comps results was between 2 and 2 and a half hours. The feis peoples were on top of what was going on on the stages, and rearranged stage use on the champ stages to keep things moving. Well done.
Feis Flow Score: 10
Two part scoring with a Feis Score consisting of Judging, Music, Results and Flow, and then the overall consisting of everything.
Feis Score: 9.375 – PC/OC is always helped by judges and music, but the Results and especially Flow were pretty good.
And the WTF Rating is 8.79… Good job Buckeye!
[poll id=”26″]
The 5th Annual Buckeye Feis was held on April 20th, 2013 at the Franklin County Veterans Memorial in Columbus, OH.
Please add your feis rating for the Buckeye State Feis at the bottom of this review!
We did not attend the 4th Annual due to a school change, but you can see my other Buckeye State Feis reviews here.
NOTE: I did not arrive till after 11 so comments are about the afternoon session of dancing.
Venue – This is the fourth feis I have attended at Vets Memorial, and I like it as a feis venue. There were six performance stages in one large room and I felt the stages were spaced out well but not so far apart that getting back and forth between was difficult. Stages 1 and 2 were for OC and PC and I didn’t take note of the size of #1, but I saw #2 and it was big. The remaining stages were all good size.
If there were any negatives regarding the stages, it was they appeared to be very slippery. I saw two falls and multiple slips in the 2 hours I was watching our stage, and heard of, and saw, other injuries due to falls on other stages. I did not see the crew mop the stage, but they did ‘dust it’ once, which I do not think is sufficient to keep the slipiness to a minimum.
Camping was available in the center of the venue and stages were on the outer perimeter. Camping was crowded but appeared sufficient and people generally seemed to respect the no camping signs.
Seating at the stages for viewers was a bit limited and IMHO there was room for more chairs for additional viewers.
Feis results were posted in a small area outside the big room and awards were in an area adjacent to both results and the big room, all very convenient.
Parking seemed sufficient but could have been a bit farther out depending on when you arrived. We got there in the transition from morning to afternoon sessions so were able to get fairly close, and either way there was a way to pull right up to the doors to drop off dancers and gear. Parking fee was $7 instead of the $8 posted on the site.
Venue Score: 7.5
Judges – I think this section is stuck on repeat… daughter danced four dances and was judged by three different judges.
Judge Score: 9
Music – Each stage had their own musicians and on stage 5 there were 2. I did not hear any ‘bleed over’ from one stage to the other and the dancers did not seem to have any issues.
Musician Score: 8.5
Food – Regular big venue concession stand, pretzels, chips, sandwiches, soda etc… Regular concession prices. They did bring in some food carts including crepes, pitas, shaved ice and coffee which added some variety to the norm. Prices in the carts were also ‘higher’ but not stupid high, and we tried the crepes, pitas and coffee carts and all were good
Food Score: 8
Vendors – Very limited, George the shoe guy, a tie-dye feis tshirt guy, and the ‘wig & stuff’ table, but that was it. No Irish garb, souvenirs, jewelry etc… a little dissapointing. I know, its a dance competition, not a shopping trip, but where else am I going to get my Irish SWAG fix?
Vendor Score: 6
Results – Big positive here! Results were out quickly, and for the first dance my daughter did, the results were out before the second dance started. Generally I would say they were posted on the wall in 15-25 minutes, although that seemed to slip a bit as the day progressed. I did find that many times however, FeisWorx had the results posted before a hard copy made it to the wall… why was I doing so much walking?
Results Score: 8
Feis Flow – Excellent! My daughter danced 4 dances and from start to finish (not including waiting for results) she was done in 2 hours. They had only five different age comps on the stage and they rotated quickly. This may be due to lower numbers in some of the comps but some had over 20 dancers.
Combine that with the quick results and good venue, I would say I was very pleased with the flow of the Buckeye Feis.
Feis Flow Score: 9
And the WTF Rating – a 8.0. Nice Job Buckeye! A highly recommended feis.
[poll id=”2″]
I decided that reviewing the most recent feis I attended may be good subject matter for this site. I planned on covering what I thought about the Buckeye Feis this past weekend, including the food, parking, dresses, etc…. but it appears that @IrishDanceMom02 beat me too it. For a great review of the 3rd Annual Buckeye Feis, see her blog post.
There were a few things I was interested in that @IrishDanceMom02 didn’t mention that I thought I would briefly cover. First, the judging. The judges changed frequently which is good. If a judge stays on one stage too long it can harm (or help) a dancers chances for scoring well if the judge happens to have particular style they look for. I know, I have seen it happen. I liked the fact that for the six dances the girl child did, there were 3 different judges, giving all the dancers more even odds.
The music was good and I saw at least 2, and sometimes 3 musicians on a stage. I didn’t look at all the stages but the ones in my area were well covered with fiddles or accordions, sometimes a mix of both, but nary an iPod playing dance music to be found.
And who doesn’t go for the shopping? The SWAG at the event was unfortunately limited, and besides the obligatory shoe, wig and socks tables, there was only one one Irish SWAG table. Being that I am 1st generation Irish American, I really enjoy the Irish SWAG so I was a bit disappointed.
The other thing I thought was missing that would bring more Dads to these events was beer, but I will leave that can of worms for another post.