The Dayton Feis was held on April 26th, 2015 at the Dayton Airport Expo Center in Vandalia, 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.
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The 42nd annual Dayton Feis was held on June 27th, 2014 at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio.
This is the third time I have done the Dayton Feis at Sinclair. Here are the posts about past experiences if you are interested, but its going to sound like what is below 😉 In fact, so little has changed, I am copying and pasting sections from last years review where approprite (indented and italicized). Why rewrite history? 😉
The feis was split into three floors of the building. The competitions held on the lowest level in an indoor track and field building, a second floor that had a cafeteria, the tabulation room and where the OC/PC presentations were done, and the top level where results were posted and awards were presented. Lots of stairs so not the best for people with limited mobility, but there were elevators available.
There were six stages, which in general were good sizes. The smallest was 24 x 20 and the largest was 32 x 32 (one of the champ stages). While the smaller stage is bigger than some I have seen, the issue with this one is that it was half of a joined stage (stages 5 & 6) that were split down the middle by a piece of tape.
The stages were slippery, but the feis crew was VERY proactive trying to keep the stages safe. I saw multiple times where they stopped activity on the stage to mop. Sure, it slowed things down a bit, but in the interest of safety, who can complain.
Chairs seemed adequate, but… oh if you have read any of my reviews you know what I am going to say… although adequate, they were not used inefficiently and there were lots of standing viewers. 🙁
Camping in the dance area was very limited, but the second level had a lot more area available, just not as convenient.
It actually seemed like there were more people there this year than in the past two years. Very crowded and more difficult than usual to get around the venue. Camping was an issue.
The results and awards were two floors up for Grades level dancers. Room to move around, but running up and down a few flights of stairs could be draining and not easy at all for mobility challenged visitors.
Awards and results for PC/OC was on the second floor on a small stage in the cafeteria area and there was plenty of seating and viewing room. There were three ways to get to the stage so there was no need for dancers to crowd around close which made it less congested than usual.
Parking was plentiful, in the schools parking garage and lots, and there was a covered walkway from the garage to the venue. Parking in the garage was only $2. It was a bit of a hike from the parking area into the venue and as far as I could tell, there was no where where mobility challenged viewers could be dropped fairly close to the door.
The other ‘item of note’ that they have done in both years previously is the bathrooms. Considering the number of females at these events, they turned some of the men’s rooms into women’s rooms for the day, in fact, the only men’s room I knew about was on the top floor. I feel sorry for the potty training male parents or smaller-bladdered men.
Only really saw the judges on our stage. There were three of course, and I thought one of them seemed a bit distracted and saw that judge occasionally not watching the dancers. The other two were very attentive.
Even I could tell there were music issues this year. There were complaints from dancers and I saw the musician fiddling with the speakers multiple times. Neither TGC nor the girl she was dancing with could hear well enough to start, and told the judges. The musician turned up the speakers(again) and the girls were able to complete their steps. I have seen this musician plenty of times with no issues, so I am wondering if it was an equipment issue. I thought there was a lot of ambient noise which probably contributed to the issues.
Using the college concession worked to the feis advantage. Food was plentiful, had some variety and was priced for college students. There were also healthy options like fruit cups and hummus and chips in addition to pizza etc…
Actually not as good as last year! I saw George the shoe guy, and the wig people, and the t shirt table that had a nice variety of add-ons for the t-shirts. The photography guy was there, and there was some ‘crafty’ stuff, but really nothing else ‘stood out’. Not an M&M in sight either.
I have mixed feelings about the way awards were handled for PC/OC. For as long as I was there, they made Champ results announcements every hour at fifteen past the hour. Not really a bad system necessarily, but they only did a few comps each time, so if your comp didn’t make the cutoff, you would have to wait an extra hour. Since I was ‘associated’ with the feis, I found out the results for TGC’s comp had been tabulated in about 90 minutes (the average), but, they were not announced for about 2 and a half hours after she had finished dancing because we ‘missed the cutoff’. NOTE: I did not have access to results, just knew when the tabulations were done.
The other thing this feis does is announce overall placers first, and then announce the ‘shoes’, all the while having the overall winners stand on the stage. Sorry, not a fan. Do shoes, then overall 🙂
Two other thing I thought was out of place, no podium, which I suppose can be attributed to the venue, but the ‘worst’ thing (tongue in cheek worst of course), there were no sashes! OMG!
Flow was actually pretty good. TGC and her comp got through both steps in around an hour, and they were staggered on the same stage with another comp. There were an average number of dancers so I thought an hour was pretty good.
Also heard an announcement that stages were moving pretty quickly and would be rearranged to move things along a bit faster. I remember the same thing happening last year. This can be good but can also cause issues if parents and dancers aren’t being attentive to the possible changes.
Another tough one to score. A local feis and I have volunteered for the past two years. I know how hard the people work but there are some ‘things’ that could be done a bit better. I tend to think that we are outgrowing that venue, granted I don’t know what other options are available. Mix that with some of the music issues and the results comments I had, and I would have to put Dayton in the 6.5 – 7 range. Sorry Dayton, love you guys, but I gotta call them like I see them. Gimme a call, when can go out for a beer and talk about it.
Of course we will be back.
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aka – things are not always as they appear. This is the follow up article that I mentioned in my Dayton Feis review from last week.
I know I have mentioned many times that I have not run a feis, and have no idea what goes on behind the scenes, but for the Dayton Feis, I had the privilege of working the morning shift in the results tabulation room. This was a great opportunity, one of those paradigm shifting things (if you are a Stephen Covey fan), that made me realize things are not always as they seem.
The room had 5 laptops setup for entries and it seems at least 3 of them were manned at any time. They had all been checked and rechecked, and the people who had done all the setup(fewer people than I assumed by the way) were ready. We were given an overview of the application since many of the volunteers had not worked results before. We were also given the contingency plan in case anything hit the fan, and that was to write out the results on paper, and send them to the results board. There was an ‘in’ basket were envelopes from the dance area came in, and an ‘out’ basket were results that had been entered and printed went, bound for the awards area to be posted for viewing.
As you can imagine, things started slowly. As envelopes started trickling in, ‘it’ hit the fan. As results were being entered, the application would shut down unexpectedly. As we started writing out the results to be posted, one of the Feis people was on the phone with tech support almost immediately, and in a relatively short amount of time, had a work around for the issue. Soon, all the laptops were churning out results pages.
At the laptops, there was a reader and an input person, and considering I am a geek in real life, I got to input results. The application was relatively easy to use, but I did have some usability issues with it, but I digress, as that has nothing to do with the feis or the people who ran it. The tag team concept worked pretty well, and there were often lags where we were waiting for envelopes to come in. There were also times when there were some waiting to be recorded, but I would say in general, from hitting the ‘in’ box to hitting the ‘out’ box, was generally less than 15 minutes.
This is where I had my paradigm shift, and probably the part where you are saying, ’15 minutes!? That is pretty darn good. Why so long to the boards?’
I had the same question. IMHO, I think there was a lag with the runners trying to keep up with things. Also, I cannot speak to the process at awards where the results went, were filed appropriately, and then posted, but can see where that could add to any apparent ‘lag’.
So, I wanted to compliment the Dayton Feis Results organizers on running results, no matter what my comments about the rest of the feis may have been, this part was done extremely well.
I guess my other point is, next time I say to myself or fellow feis goers, ‘I wonder what the hell the problem is in the results room’ I will stop and remember everything that goes into getting a result from the Judge, all the way to the wall.
In the interest of full disclosure – if you read my review, you know the girl child danced at Dayton and although I saw the score sheets from the judges for two of her dances, I did not enter the results for either of them into the system.
The 41st annual Dayton Feis was held on June 22nd, 2013 at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio.
Venue – This is the second time I have done the Dayton Feis at Sinclair. If you are curious here is the review for last year. I don’t think the venue is bad, but I think it has a few limitations.
The feis was split into three floors of the building. The competitions held on the lowest level in an indoor track and field building, a second floor that had a cafeteria, the tabulation room and where the OC/PC presentations were done, and the top level where results were posted and awards were presented. Lots of stairs so not the best for people with limited mobility, but there were elevators available.
There were six stages, which in general were good sizes. The smallest was 24 x 20 and the largest was 32 x 32 (one of the champ stages). While the smaller stage is bigger than some I have seen, the issue with this one is that it was half of a joined stage (stages 5 & 6) that were split down the middle by a piece of tape. Last year I was OK with that, but I am less of a fan this year, especially with the size of some of the comps on those stages. These stages were sharing a musician like last year, but I do feel there was enough room to separate these two, add a little more size and still share the musician.
I saw multiple slips and falls and could see ‘stuff’ on one of the champ stages. Couldn’t tell if it was hair pins, or whatever, but it was obvious. I did not see any floor cleanup or mopping during the day, not saying there was none, but I saw none.
Chairs seemed adequate, a bit heavy for OC/PC but that seems to be the norm. There were lots of standing viewers.
Camping in the dance area was very limited, but the second level had a lot more area available, just not as convenient.
As mentioned, results and awards were on the third floor, and as long as you were done dancing, that was cool, you could just wait upstairs (which is also where you exited the building). Otherwise, having them two floors up caused a lot of walking and stairs during the day.
Parking was plentiful, pretty close, and only $2.
Vendors were at one end of the room, and there were a lot more than last year. I thought they were easy to get to, and separated nicely from the stages.
Venue Score: 8 Would have been better with more camping in the competition area and if everything was on the same floor, otherwise, really not that bad.
Judges – The girl child danced 4 times and was judged by 4 different judges. As good as it gets in my opinion.
Judge Score: 10
Music – All stages except 5 & 6 had their own musician. 5 & 6 shared one, but that really did not seem to be too much of an issue. I did witness one rather long stoppage when dancers were lined up on both stages, and they just milled about waiting for the musician to return.
Maybe my suggestion of separating stages 5 & 6 will be seen and they can add on another musician next year. 🙂
Musician Score: 7.5
Food – Using the college concession worked to the feis advantage. Food was plentiful, had some variety and was priced for college students. There were also healthy options like fruit cups and hummus and chips in addition to pizza etc…
Food Score: 9.5
Vendors – A big improvement over last year! George the shoe guy had his table, and the ribbon key chain lady, and the shortbread guy (if you are from this area, you probably know these people), and the wig people, and the t shirt table that had a nice variety of add-ons for the t-shirts. In addition though, there were several jewelry tables, and several vendors with Irish items like hats, scarves, shirts, nic nacs etc… A nice browsing/shopping experience.
Vendor Score: 9.5
Results – For reasons I will explain in another post this week, I thought the results were handled pretty well. The ones that I checked were up on the board within 30 minutes.
Dayton is an eFeis feis so electronic results were not available right away like some are on FeisWorx, and the feis was not tweeting or otherwise posting results electronically
Awards were on the same floor with the results, and they had a variety of awards available for Prizewinner 1st place winners.
If there were any negatives, it would be that the results needed to be posted in a more organized fashion. They were just posted as they came out and there was no order to them. IMHO, each comp should have been grouped together and posted in the same area on the board so all results for that comp could be easily viewed.
Results Score: 8
Feis Flow – Not too bad. We started at 10ish and had the last dance at around 3. Huge comps and lots of them slowed everything down a little, but without adding more stages, I don’t know how that could have been better. Our day would have been longer but they moved a few of the last dances to another stage to help get them get done earlier. The stages moved along pretty well I thought.
I did hear complaints that the lunch took to long with someone saying an hour and a half, but I was trying to sell a dress, eat some pizza and find my daughter, so I really did not notice.
Feis Flow Score: 7.5
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 – 8.25
And the WTF Rating – a 8.57. Great job Dayton!
Remember to look for a special Dayton Feis 2013 post coming later this week.
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I want to say CONGRATS to Rachel from MI…. I won’t say what school or what age… She competed against my daughter and took first in every dance. Way to go!
Rachel and her Mom are the type to wait till the end to get results and it was killing me not to share with them how well Rachel was doing. It is really nice to meet dancers who don’t appear to have that ‘drama queen dance diva’ attitude and I like to see them succeed, even if they are beating my daughter.
Oh, BTW Rachel, can you move up so my daughter has a better chance? Thanks! 😉
and hi to Katie (Rachels little sister who also dances, and the reason I met the family in the first place) 🙂
Editors Note: Rachel and her family have no way of knowing about this post, so if you know them by chance, please pass on my regards. Thanks!
The Dayton Feis was held on June 23rd, 2012 at Sinclair Community College in Dayton. Here is what this casual observer had to say…
Venue – I liked it. May have seemed a little crowded to some people but I thought it was OK. The stages were paired into twos, at least the one that we were on, but that was to accommodate limited musicians. Unlike Louisville last week though, it appeared they planned for that and had similar dances and comp sizes running simultaneously. Good camping space and stage separation (except the paired ones of course). Food was one floor up and awards two floors up, but it was a nice break to walk around between dances.
Judges – rotated frequently. Two thumbs up. You should know by now how I feel about a judge staying on one stage for multiple dances (“no sir, I don’t like it” (Ren and Stimpy reference, if you got that, you are my hero 🙂 ))
Food – good job there too. They had burgers, pretzels and pizza, but also provided healthier alternatives like veggies, humus and chicken wraps. There was also a Skyline Coney table if people were so inclined. Prices were reasonable.
Vendors – thumbs down, sorry. The shoe guy (George, actually his daughter this time), a wig table and an accessories table. No fun Irish SWAG, no books, no tshirts, in fact, I didn’t even see any Dayton Feis tshirts (might have missed it but if they had them, it was not evident).
OK, now for the big negative… results. It was somewhere between 90 minutes and 2 hours between my daughters dance and the results posting. I had flashbacks to the Akron Feis and LOTS of people were complaining about result timeliness. It was about that long for the second set of results to come out too. Later in the afternoon, it seemed like things got smoother, but people won’t remember that part, they will remember the slow postings.
So the WTF Rating – While I was at the feis, dealing with the results taking forever, I was thinking the rating should be 4.5, but as I read this, I really have more positives than negatives, so I will say 6.5. It could be higher, but waiting on results is big for us parents Dayton.