Feis Culkin, more review this post

First off, welcome back, Feis Culkin. They had to take a break last year due to a big anniversary celebration for the college. To be fair, I have to point out that any fault I find with Feis Culkin is minor. This is, overall, a consistently good feis, one of our top three in this (greater D.C.) area. It's one of the few my daughter would attend when first starting to compete in Irish stepdancing.

I like the venue -- Mount St. Mary's in Emmitsburg, Maryland, allows for bleacher "camping." I don't get claustrophobic. I can see, and I can move. My mother can almost always get a seat even, with a view. The one tight spot is between one of the stages and it's check-in location, the bleachers, and the steps. Maybe the stage could be moved a foot more towards the center next time to relieve some traffic jam. (Same recommendations I'd give to CCE / Comhaltas feis which uses the same venue.) Sometimes the stage signs can be tricky to see, requiring going over to the stage and up to the sign, but no more so than at many other feiseanna.

For some stages, the musicians, yes, live musicians are a lovely requirement for any sanctioned feis, are shared. The thought is that the music would carry over just the two adjoining stages; this is a typical set up. Some stages had dedicated musicians. The drawback of a feis with all stages in one large room is that sound can carry, music from one stage might be mixed in with music from another stage in a dancers head. There can be sensory overload, not too bad this time. Personally, I still prefer this over being squeezed into a too-small hotel room (especially if stage signs indicating what dance is going now, and next, are in the rooms so entry is required to check stages). FYI -- good musicians.

The stages themselves, from all indications I've received, ran well. One was a bit slippery (perhaps others but I don't know that), and I saw three people fall in a similar spot. Otherwise, they were decent, sprung/raised, standard stages.

There is an entry fee vice a family fee. Some prefer one, some prefer the other. Typically, it's just my daughter and me, so I'd prefer the entry fee as being more cost effective. As my mother joined us for this one (and can't, normally), we'd have done alright w/ a family fee. Nicely, there was not a jam getting in (albeit we did arrive approximately 8:20 a.m., with the feis starting at 9:00 a.m. YEAH for 9:00 a.m. start, not 8:00 a.m., and nicely coordinating w/ when the times go normal again and we get an extra hour of sleep).

Food options were reasonable in variety and pricing, including a bake sale table put on by the Culkin school. Basically, this means that I could find a couple items not only for my daughter who gets pickier on feis days as to what she'll eat, and for vegetarian me.

Figures started off the day, on time, and treble reel ended the day -- ending around 4:00 - 4:30 p.m. ??? Feis Culkin offers many figures dances that are the same as what's competed in at the Southern Region Oireachtas, a nice feature for any feis that can get enough figure dancing entries. They did not offer the non-traditional set for preliminary champion dancers (helpful for O practice, but not needed for a typical feis).

M's Oireachtas 4-hand team couldn't perform at this feis. Others from M's dance school did. I forget what 8-hand dances were offered. However, her 4-hand has one dancer in the next higher age level, and so when M's 2-hand partner, L, signed up for their 2-hand, she accidently signed up for the next higher age level. They were able to dance together in their appropriate age group.

The girls did both forget their new headbands for their new school dresses, as the headbands are also used with a different performance dress. Nicely, they both had coordinating tiaras so they still looked like a team. They dance a beautiful, nicely executed 2-hand. They didn't, fully, this time; 3rd place out of 4 teams "Mom, I'm just glad that even though we screwed up, we still beat someone." Hmmm. I don't care so much about the placement as their effort and did they get sloppy at parts. It's still useful for M to compete in a dance previous to her "important" one, dance on the stage, get in competition mode, hair, makeup, muscles moving. Still. I do want her to try to do her best.

We could move around and see other dancers, friends, her sister, others, in both champs and grades, sometimes a few stages at a time. This was while waiting for M's own competition on her stage to be checked in (a perk for this venue). M & L both had time before changing into their solo dresses for their preliminary champion rounds.

Champion awards were within quick to reasonable timeframe, albeit I didn't know when awards were being announced unless I went up to that area and checked. If the announcement that awards for x competition were going to be anounced, was given in the large gymnasium/room, I never heard it / could differentiate that notice from others. Love that sashes were also given out to any champion winning first place. The black and white on everything can get a bit much (the school colors), but minor. One competition had two 1st-place tie winners (U-16 girls), and a second trophy was brought out so that each girl had one. M and L both placed, yeah, always exciting, but one of their friends in their competition did not.

Champion scores were included in cost (normal practice where we tend to feis), and available after awards (also typical). Wow, they included comments from each of the three judges. Most dancers we talked with also received comments, often on both rounds, from each of their three judges, also. That is worth a lot, and us MAIDs and the TCRG's and the dancers really appreciate it.

Seemed to be good panel of judges overall. An adult competitor friend, from a different Irish dance school, was pleased as well. She said that her judge really concentrated on watching the dancers steps. It had my friend feel a bit embarrassed when she slipped up, and also had her working really hard on her particular areas of concern. She also received comments, and thought the judge fair.

In order to finish up the feis, M & L's treble reel was moved to another stage. However, at this point, they weren't fully paying attention. Oh, they knew their treble reel competition was moved, and where to. They were talking with their teacher and missed it, even with a phone call from L's mom pointing it out. Oy. A friend of theirs, a dancer I call LCGirl, talked with the stage manager of her treble reel competition. No one lied and said they missed theirs as the stages changed, but not sure if the stage manager considered that was the issue or not. The two girls, M and L were allowed to join the over-18 champion treble reel. Thankfully, it's really a for fun and some show-off dance to end the day with (and likely why LCGirl likes it so).

The awards room seemed organized and not too overwhelmed the few times I entered it. One year, possibly 2 years ago, Feis Culkin awards room was backed up I think over an hour, and they ran out of some medals. (This was in grades; M moved up to prelim at this venue just this May at the Comhaltas Feis.) The medals were mailed, with a lovely note attached. There didn't seem to be any issues this year. M was quite pleased with her treble reel trophy, as large as her champion trophy. At first, a prizewinner trebel reel trophy was given out by mistake but "oh, sorry," fixed quickly.

I like that there was an engraver onsite. The t-shirt vendor accidently brought the logo for a different feis with them, but no matter; they'd mail the items at no cost to the customer after adding the logo. Other good vendors.

Even if it weren't so daggone convenient, we'd still have M compete at this feis. Heck, we've even visited to watch friends before M ever competed, and we likely would if M stopped competing, temporarily or permanately.