Great Lakes Feis and Glass City Feis Review

Last weekend was the Great Lakes Feis and the Glass City feis. Both of these competitions took place in Toledo, Ohio at the Sea Gate Convention Center. I will say that these were not some of my favorite competitions to go to, but that being said they were really well run and organized both days.

My likes and dislikes are the same for both days so I will not be separating these by feis.

What I liked about these competitions:

• Judges were changed frequently
• Frequent announcements were made over the loud speaker
• Started on time both days
• Lunch break did not go over
• Vendors: there was a wide variety of vendors and if you needed something dance related you were likely to find it at one of them.

What I did not like about these competitions:

• The music situation was a mess both days.
  • the first day the musician on my stage would change the tune and tempo in the middle of the song he would also play the incorrect timings for the dances. On Sunday the music was not loud enough even when people asked for it to be turned up. For a while it was turned up, but then turned back down again later in the day. Both days you could hear the music from other stages while on stage. In my opinion there should have been some sort of separation between the stages. Even if there was just a thin curtain between them, it would help block out some of the sound from the other stages.
• Camping- there was plenty of room to camp, but it was difficult to get around.
•  Results took a while to be posted

Venue

Well, I think most of the reasons why I didn’t particularly care for these competitions was because of the venue. Convention centers have always been my least favorite type of venue. Because there is usually no carpet or anything in them sound bounces all over the place. This was probably part of the problem with the music situation. However aside from that it was a nice venue. Parking was right across the street and was connected by a bridge. You could have also just walked across the street. Either way, you didn’t have to walk far and when you’re carrying a bunch of stuff,not having to walk far is a great thing. I should also mention too, that I do believe they are still getting used to this venue, This was only the third year the feis was held here. So I do believe many of the issues are still being worked out.

Food

There was only one place for food, I believe. It sold things like pizza, salads, sandwiches, and wraps. I did not purchase food from here. Like usual, I decided to bring my own snacks.

Even though these were not my favorite competitions to attend, that does not take away from the fact that they were very well run. Time was very well managed on both days and that’s saying a lot about a feis. I will most likely be returning next year to these competitions.

Another side note: I got to see one of friends from my old school. I have not seen her in so long and it was so awesome to see her again. I also loved that so many of my friends were there from my studio. I am usually only one of three or four girls at most competitions and having so many of my friends there was really fun.