2004Georgia State Feis

When:	June 18-19, 2004
Where:	Marriott Century Center Atlanta, GA
Competitors:	Devonna (Parent-Child/Soda Bread) Rebekah (dancing) Rachel (dancing/vocal) Luke (dancing)
Why We Went:	We wanted to do a Southern Region feis in the middle of the year. We also wanted Luke's first competitive feis to not be Dayton. We also struck a bargain with the kids that if we allowed them to do a feis where Devonna and I wouldn't dance solos, they wouldn't complain about only the two of us doing Nation's Cap.
Previously Reviewed:

ORGANIZATION

A large and varied selection of vendors, which was also open for business on Friday night.
Preregistration on Friday night

To the best of our knowledge, the fact that Adults were scheduled to compete Friday night (more below) was not advertised beforehand. That would have been a rude surprise if we had decided to dance...

Adults danced Friday Night
Music competitions were also held on Friday night
Beginners danced at the beginning of the day so they could be cleared out.
Figures were after Beginners.
Prelims and Champions got started immediately at the beginning of the day. Given how late they ran, that was necessary.

Two levels of Adult competition.
Only one level of Parent-Child competitions, with no age split
Age splits for the Treble Reel competitions at the end of the day need some work.
Because Rebekah was split-level in her dances, she moved around a lot throughout the day.

Two different vendors areas.
A third ballroom across the hall was used for Prelims and Open Champions. This had to have been convenient for parents who had kids in both locations.
The water tables in the hall between the Main Ballroom and the Championship Ballroom was continually resupplied throughout the day.
Soda breads and crafts were publically displayed in a side hallway. Even though it was off the beaten traffic path, the committee made an attempt to show off other's Irish-related crafts.
The Solo Dress sale rack was in a highly-visible place.

Air Conditioning was uneven at best throughout the facility, and seemed to have problems keeping up with the load.
There wasn't really any room to safely practice your steps before competing.
There was only one way into the feis area from the hotel, which was invariably crowded with various stationary conversations and step practices.
Parents and dancers were pretty much stuck with whatever the hotel provided for food throughout the day.
The room that was used for the Women's changing room was poorly advertised as such and a little too public for Devonna's comfort. Some people even tried to use it as a camping area. The committee also ended up losing the use of this room midway through the feis.

B-.

Adults were allowed to dance one at a time on Friday night, probably because there were so few of them.
The music competitions were run on a first-come, first serve basis.
No Friday night awards ceremony for music competitors. Those results were posted the next day.
Adjudicators were rotated from stage to stage throughout the day.

The feis started later than advertised
This was the second feis in my memory where I was cringing through the National Anthems. The melody of the Irish Anthem, in particular, changed into a totally different song about halfway through.
The syllabus stated that boy competitors would be split off and danced separately from the girls at the time of competition. They didn't. If they weren't going to do it that way, why did it say so in the syllabus?
No first feis complimentary award was given out to the beginner dancers.
The pause before the Parent-Child competition danced didn't seem to have a rational explanation.
I'm not sure I would have boasted before handing out awards for the Treble Reel that they were handing out more awards than any other feis, especially considering which school(s) won the expanded awards.
A Feis Committee member was really nasty about clearing out the ballrooms early Saturday morning for an alleged meeting that never took place. There were numerous other places throughout the feis site that were available for holding whatever meeting they were planning that wouldn't have impacted parents trying to get a good seat to watch their children or allow them to practice pre-feis. Devonna's two encounters with the committee on this point left her with the distinct impression that they need to work on customer relations.

C-.