Kansas City Feis

WHAT WENT RIGHT

• Feisworx handled registration
• The Kansas City Irish Festival was running that weekend in the plaza next to the feis hotel/site, and was promoted heavily on the feis website. In fact, dancers at the feis got free admission to the Festival.

WHAT WENT WRONG

• Publicity and information about this feis was a little light in the months preceding it. The feis website, for instance, only came online about the same time registrations opened. I can't speak for how it affected other families, but planning the start of our vacation around this feis was something of a leap of faith.
• While the link to the feis hotel was helpful, the hotel website contained contradictory information on how to get there. People arriving from the east, for instance, were told to exit I-35 at an interchange that didn't exist. The committee may want to make their own maps and driving instructions available, as well as the location(s) of nearby parking areas.
• I noticed during practice the night before the feis that the committee was setting up the Now/Next numbers at the back of the stage. Realizing this was going to cause massive congestion problems the next day, I suggested to a committee member present that the numbers be moved in front of the stage. As detailed below, my suggestion was ignored.
• They used a musician in each section of the ballroom. Given how quickly the feis ran, they could have done away with the partitions between the ballroom sections and gone with one musician for all stages.

GRADE

WHAT WENT RIGHT

WHAT WENT WRONG

• Only two levels of Adult competition
• Not very many figure competitions were available
• No parent-child competition
• No music competitions. Since this was their first feis, I'm more forgiving on this point than normal.
• Kids rotated among stages within each ballroom section instead of adjudicators. Considering the congestion generated by not having the Now/Next numbers in a convenient location, this was Not A Good Thing
• Adult competitions, unlike youth competitions were not rotated between stages until hardshoes. Coupled with the lack of adjudicator rotation, this meant we had the same adjudicator for all our soft shoes, and the same adjudicator for all our hardshoes.

GRADE

WHAT WENT RIGHT

• The Feis hotel and site were almost too opulent. I shudder to think how much staying there would have been without a feis rate. It was a very nice stay.
• The hotel was also part of an indoor mall which gave us numerous shopping and eating opportunties within easy walking distance.
• The ballrooms were open the night before the feis for practicing
• The column used for results posting could sort of be read from the balcony in front of the ballroom without going downstairs.

WHAT WENT WRONG

• Stages were deep but very narrow
• Because the Now/Next competition numbers at each stage were posted behind the stage, people trying to read this board had to fight their way through competitors, their dresses, and their legs lining up for their competitions and competitors leaving the stage. This more than anything else contributed to the congestion and crowding in the ballrooms all day. They need to work on a dedicated traffic flow such as at Music City or Queen City where you exit off a different side of the stage
• The partition between the sections of the ballroom needed to be open at the back of the ballroom more than they were. Many people with dancers in separate sections (such as Clan Seger) stood in the small gap that was available so they could keep track of all the stages. People wanting to go rapidly from one section of the ballroom to another were sort of out of luck

GRADE

WHAT WENT RIGHT

• Speed of results posting was rapid all day.

WHAT WENT WRONG

• Sporadic adjudicator rotation in one of the ballroom sections

GRADE