3R – What The Feis

queencity The 10th Annual Queen City Feis was held Saturday, May 11th, 2013 at the Duke Energy Convention Center in Cincinnati, OH.

Venue – This is the third or fourth feis I have attended at the Duke energy Center, and I like it as a feis venue. There were seven performance stages in one large room and like Buckeye, the stages were spaced out well, but not so far apart that getting back and forth between stages was difficult. Stages 6 and 7 were for OC and PC and were really big. They were in the same room, but sectioned off by a partition. The other 5 stages seemed a bit bigger than what I am use to seeing, and if I figured right, 24 x 24 feet, at least the stage we were on was.

Camping was very adequate but it still amazes me that people cram into smaller areas and camp in the walkways to be near their stage when there is so much room available.

Seating at the stages for viewers was good.

Feis results were posted on a big wall on one end of the room and awards were right next to results lists, all very convenient.

Parking was sufficient in parking garages within a block of the hall, but a bit pricey at $10. Seemed higher than I remember from previous feiseanna, but there was a big pet expo at the Duke Energy Center too, so maybe they jacked it up a bit.

Venue Score: 8.5

Judges –Judge rotation was really good, my daughter danced three competitive dances and was judged by three different judges. She also did the Treble Reel and was judged by one of the three, but I don’t really count that as a repeat.

Judge Score: 10

Music – Considering how far apart the stages were, each stage had to have its own musician. No music bleed over and I did not see any major stoppages because of music issues.

Musician Score: 10

Food – Big venue concession stand, pretzels, chips, sandwiches, soda etc…, a little variety with paninis, cubans and some others. There some food carts for lemonade, shaved ice and smoothies. There was a coffee counter out in the ‘lobby’ that served Stabucks but was not a Starbucks.

For the food, I thought the prices were really high however. A salad was $8 or higher as were many of the sandwich options. A hot dog, $4, Gatorade $3.50, sodas over $2 and beer over $6. Trying to eat healthy was a bit cost prohibitive. Not impressed.

Food quality was not bad for what we did get however.

Food Score: 4

Vendors – George the shoe guy, a feis tshirt guy, and the ‘wig & stuff’ table, some jewelry, Irish nic nacs, the photographer, etc. There was a nuts and chocolate table that had some good stuff that was not too expensive.

See the complete vendor list.

Vendor Score: 8

Results – Very good, very fast… 15 minutes-ish for the results to hit the wall, maybe a little bit longer, but anything under 30 is not bad compared to some feisanna I have been too. This was particularly good.

I did not notice if there was any electronic posting as the paper copies were out so quick.

Results Score: 9

Feis Flow – Not too bad. My daughter had 3 competitive dances, skipping the TJ, and from start to finish (including waiting for results), she was done in about 6 hours, but there was a lunch break in there. They had six different age comps on the stage, and the comps were big, with most being spit into 2 groups each which slowed things down.

Combine that with the quick results and good venue, I would say the flow of the Queen City Feis was pretty darn good.

Feis Flow Score: 7.5 – a little slow.

And the WTF Rating, – a 8.14. Good judge rotation, good musician score really helped, bit I highly recommended this feis.

What did you think?

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The West Virginia Feis was held on March 23 and 24th, 2013 at Hyatt Regency Hotel at the Pittsburgh Airport in Pittsburgh, PA. Since the feis was held in PA, I have listed it under both PA and WV reviews.

Please add your feis rating for the West Virginia Feis at the bottom of this review!

NOTE: This review focuses on Saturday only for this two day feis. OC and PC stages and judging therefore are not included in the review.

Venue – This is the second feis I have attended at the Hyatt, and for the last one, I said it ‘wasn’t terrible as a feis venue’, and I still go by that, HOWEVER, I liked it a lot less this time than the last. There were four performance stages, and while I peeked in on the fourth, most of my time was spent in the large ballroom with the three stages. As in my last review for this venue, stages were good size and had sufficient chairs for viewers. The traffic area around the stages was not adequate and moving was difficult, especially since some people congregated on the back wall and in front of the doors into the stage area.

When the hard shoe dances started, the noise carryover between the stages was distracting to me in the viewing seats, but I cannot speak for the dancers on stage.

Camping spots were available in the meeting rooms around the ballroom. Hallways were clearly marked “NO CAMPING” but I saw plenty of people camped right beneath the signs. Camping in the seats around the stages seemed to be at a minimum however, which was nice (at least on stage 3 where we were).

For the last feis I thought the biggest venue ‘issue’ was the concession set up. For this feis, use of the hallways WAS WORSE. This was not helped by the people who did not appear to notice the ‘NO CAMPING’ signs.

Feis results were posted in the hall between the ballroom and the lobby, where the concessions happened to end, which made for an issue of the lunch crowd versus the results crowd. On top of that, there were vendors across from the results, which severely constricted flow. At lunch time that area came to a literal standstill, the rest of the time it was just horrible.

There were also vendors on both sides of the big hallway adjacent to the ballroom, so it was slower traffic through there. The hallway on the end of the ballroom did not really have vendors and might have made a better results area (my opinion only, since I have never set up a feis).

Parking was plentiful but may have involved a bit of a walk depending on when you arrived. There was a way to pull right up to the hotel to drop off dancers and gear though. The feis did pay for parking which was cool and saved me $13.

Venue Score: 5.5 (sorry the results-vendor hall made it worse this time)

Judges – Same as the last time, daughter danced four dances and was judged by three different judges.

Judge Score: 9

Music – Each stage had their own musicians, otherwise pretty standard.

Musician Score: 8

Food – Same as for the last feis, breakfast sandwiches, hot dogs, pretzels, pizza, salad, drinks and sundries… all apparently reasonably priced but we did not eat at the feis so I cannot speak to the quality.

Food Score: 6

Vendors – They had an airbrush artist which I had not seen at a feis before and I thought was a nice addition. Otherwise the standard feis tshirt guy, shoe booth, jewelry, feis and Irish themed apparel, knit goods, the wig stuff, nic-nacs, paddywacks, etc…

Vendor Score: 8.5

Results – Another negative. My daughter danced her first dance at 9 and the results were out at 930, not terrible but not great. After that though, it trended toward terrible taking about 90 minutes for the next 2 results and over an hour for the last (not sure how long since we went out to lunch and came back). A caveat, my daughters comps had nearly 30 dancers.

Results Score: 4

Feis Flow – As for the last feis here, I thought the feis flow was pretty good. There appeared to 5 or 6 dances between each of my daughters so there was time for rest between each although I did see 1 dancer from another age group what appeared to be back to back dances.

From my viewpoint the flow was handled really well and things were kept moving.

Feis Flow Score: 8.5

And the WTF Rating – a 7.07.

What did you think?

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