Gateway Feis 2010

Once again, the Gateway Feis Committee and Renaissance Hotel did a lot of things right.

The stages for the grades were laid out in a logical order. Plenty of room for people to move around. An extra ballroom was rented for vendors and also for a practice stage -- it also had extra seating for people. Parking validation was offered to defray the pay-for-parking around the hotel (although it turned out to be a moot point since the exit gate was put in the "up" position by the time we left).

And, as a bonus, they whipped through the competitions like nobody's business. When we stopped by Friday night to pick up our competition numbers we overheard someone say something to the effect that a wedding was taking place at the hotel on Saturday, so they'd need to zip the feis along to get everyone out of there so the hotel could set up for the next event.

Also, some kids from another school thought Annabeth had a nice poof:



By lunch time most of the hornpipes were done. After the break the kids finished up hornpipe, then did their Traditional Sets. We were packed up, checked out results (all of our results had been posted quickly all day long) and were out of there in time to enjoy the rest of the day. Woot.

We decided the theme for the feis was from Wicked:

One short feis at the Renaissance Hotel,
One short feis to move your dances up!

Too bad we didn't move any dances up. Our family seemed to be under some sort of dreamlike spell, much akin to Dorothy wandering around Oz -- "This is a feis? We do Irish Dance? Really?" -- so we came home with a couple of ribbons a each rather than medals. Such is life when you start to focus on other things.

Overall, a thumbs up for this feis. We recommend it.