Jersey Shore Feis Recap

I was finally able to start on my goal of attending new feisanna this year with the Jersey Shore Feis. I had never seriously considered this feis before, because I always thought that most of New Jersey was an inaccessible wasteland. (I mostly joke about the wasteland part. Mostly.) However, after actually looking it up on a map, I found it pleasantly close to a NJ Transit station, as well as the beach!

I ultimately ended up renting a car to get to the feis, however, since my boyfriend was coming along for a day at the Jersey Shore and thought it would be easier. Plus, it made it possible for us to take a shopping trip to Wegmans (aka an upstater's Mecca) post-feis. I was super paranoid about getting there on time, considering the crazy traffic due to a closed bridge plus the fact that my last feis (CNY) I didn't end up getting there until literally 5 minutes before I went onstage! Thankfully, we got there exactly on time as planned.

Venue

This feis was held at the Brick Memorial High School, which was overall a pretty decent venue. My only serious complaint in terms of driving was that there was a serious lack of parking. I ended up making my own space half in a giant mud puddle, which is obviously less than ideal. 

The competitions were nicely spread out throughout the school, taking place in both cafeterias, the auditorium, and the gymnasium. The adult competitions took place in one of the cafeterias with prelims, which I always appreciate since it means we get a bigger stage. Us older ladies and gents have long legs!

This feis seemed to have run pretty well on-time. I used the Coinnigh Rince feis calculator for the first time (I needed a couple of windows open on my computer), and the timing of the feis, at least for my first competition, lined up pretty well with what the calculator estimated. I did think some of the scheduling was weird at first (alternating adult solos with prelim contemporary sets), but it seemed to work out well for the kids shuttling back and forth between prelims and sets, as well as giving us adults a nice break between dances.

Competitions

This feis offers grades for adults plus an all-levels trad set, which worked very well for a feis of this size. There were four novice competitors and one prizewinner, which ensured a good, competitive day, at least for those of us in novice. 

I had been in quite a competitive slump lately, particularly since the O'Rourke Feis back in February. Most of it was due to severe foot pain (determined cause: too-small hardshoes), but also the psychological issue of repeatedly poor performances. I started coming out of it at the CNY Feis, but this was my first one after buying new, properly-fitted shoes and having no pain for about a month. So naturally, I felt the most confident I've been in awhile, which I think showed in my dancing. 

Awards

I ultimately ended up with three first places in trad set, reel, and slip jig, and one third in treble jig. It really sucked about my treble jig, but unfortunately we've hardly worked on it in class for a couple of months because of our new hornpipe (which I wish I had registered to do!). There were very nice trophies for the grades awards, although they ran out of third place trophies and peeled the label off of another trophy for my award, which was a little weird.

My lovely trophies (weird third place with the missing label hiding in the back)

I also got a trophy for the first place in trad set, although the other woman who tied for first with me got a small crystal vase. I think those were supposed to be the awards for trad set, but I know that things can get confusing when handing out awards, especially when all the results are in different binders with multiple people trying to help at once. 

On that, although registration was through Feisweb, they actually posted results on their own website. Their results page is very well designed, although it doesn't seem possible to access from anywhere but the individual links emailed to competitors, which adds an extra step when trying to look at past results.

Results page - fellow competitors blacked out for privacy

Overall, I think this was a really great feis, and I would definitely consider going again (minus driving). My only major complaints were the serious lack of parking, and also, the placement of the podium for prelim/open awards - directly between the cafeteria and some exit doors, which meant battling through parents to leave. Other than that, it was very well organized and well-run, with plenty of space inside for everyone. 10/10 would feis again!