2005Bob Gabor CNY Feis

When:	April 23rd, 2005
Where:	Price Chopper Horicultural Center New York State Fairgrounds Syracuse, NY
Competitors:	Ges (dancing/vocal) Devonna (dancing/soda bread/photography) Rebekah (dancing/soda bread) Rachel (dancing/vocal) Luke (dancing)
Why We Went:	We wanted to attend a feis in April. We wanted it to be an Oireachtas-qualifying feis for Rebekah. Since the Midwest feis season doesn't start until May, this meant somewhere in the Mid-Atlantic, and this one met all those qualifications.
Previously Reviewed:

ORGANIZATION

They answer their email, which in my particular case was important since I had some unusual questions concerning their network connectivity (Indianapolis was opening and closing for Registration that day and I needed to get us registered somehow)
Lots of vendors.

A-.

On the non-champion stages, all Beginners danced first, followed by all Advanced Beginners, then Novice, then Open/Prizewinner.
Dancers stayed on the same stage throughout their block of competition.
A stage was provided near the Championship stages for nothing but Awards Ceremonies for those competitions. Having been at numerous feisanna over the years where you have to wait until the evening to see if you placed, this seems like a very good idea if you have the room to do it.

Only one level of adult competition. That's the last time I let Devonna talk me into doing that...

The most crowded it ever got seemed to be between the Advanced Beginner and Novice competition blocks. Except for that one hour or so, it was very easy to move around the site.
The Music room was enclosed and sound-insulated
Registration and Changes were in the middle of the facility, forcing you to go by it before you broke off for your stage(s).
Multiple food vendors.

Vendors were scattered all around the periphery of the building. I'm scoring this as a What Went Wrong because you had to fight localized knots of congestion around various stages at certain places. Perhaps a map at Registration showing which vendor is located where could help next year?
The seating provided in the feis site was inadequate.
The parking lot was rather far away from the only entrance in which they were permitting entry. This wouldn't have been an issue except for the steady rain that morning. Wigs, socks, shoes, and dresses were getting wet because no one on the feis committee could be bothered to open up the back entrance and set up an entry fee collection point there.
A decided lack of temerature regulation for most of the day. While not an issue with me, it was a big issue with Devonna and the girls, who had to share a blanket to keep warm before their competitions.
Only one pair of restrooms (the ones on either side of the main entrance) were publically accessible

The Music adjudicator took time to talk with and critique musicians. This made for a longer line out in front of the Music Room, but was much appreciated by the music competitors.
Day-of-feis additions were allowed so the girls could submit their soda breads
There may have been a line for the computerized awards system run by Feisweb (which appears to do a lot of the feisanna in New York State), but it moved at a decent speed every time I was in it.

Adults (such as we were) had to wait most of the day before dancing. The only reason we finished when we did was because there was a break in Prelim Set competitions on our stage and the Stage Monitors worked us in.