The Hotel/ Venue: The feis was held at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort and Villas. Nice hotel overall. We arrived on Friday evening and the room that we were given had a broken air conditioner. Not something that you want in Scottsdale during the summer. After calling to report the issue they sent someone to check on it and also brought my husband a bucket a beer. He enjoyed the beer. They weren't able to fix the air conditioner so they moved us down the hall. The only issue was Sunday. Our maid service did not show until 5:30pm, otherwise the stay was problem free. The restaurant served a buffet breakfast. My daughter loved the waffle bar. The food was good and the service was great. We also enjoyed the pool. The pool area has hot tub and baby pool as well as a regular pool. The pool side bar and grill will serve you meals around the pool which is nice when you want to eat dinner and kids want to play.
Feis: The feis ran 2 days with the champions dancing Saturday and the grades, adults and figures dancing on Sunday. I will report on Sunday as that is when my daughter danced. If you have comments on the Saturday portion of the feis feel free to leave them in the comments section. I understand Saturday was running behind and the music competition was held outside the ballroom due to the feis committee not wanting to stop the dancing in hopes of getting back on schedule. Like I have said before, expect delays and be ready to wait. It's normal.
Friday night the feis held ceili dancing with a great ceili band. Saturday night was a pool party with taco bar and music. Sunday the feis started on time and ran quickly. I think it may have even been a bit ahead of schedule at one point on Sunday. The day started with prizewinner then novice soft shoe. Next was prizewinner then novice hard shoe. This allowed time for the dancers to change shoes. The specials were also held before lunch along with awards. After lunch figures started off and quickly progressed to 1st feis and 1st feis awards. Beginner 2 and 1 soft and hard shoe followed the same pattern as the prizewinner and novice dances. Grades ended around 4pm. Adults danced last. I have attend this feis over the past 3 years. This year it ran extremely smooth. The stage moms and helpers did a great job getting dancers on stage and counting them off.
Awards: Grades received nice medals. Same as past years. Specials received trophies.
Vendors: The hotel had a nice cash and carry breakfast and lunch. Lunch was either hot dog or hamburger. They also had fresh smoothie's available.
Inside the feis were a number of vendors:
Bows 'N Bloom had handmade soaps and hair bows for sale. All the bows are hand made and custom work was available for order. We have a number of her bows and hair flowers now. This including custom flowers to match our school dress. Huge hit with younger dancers but I saw some older ones showing off new flowers as well. She also has "doll and me" matching bows for girls and their dolls. I also saw a young Prelim Champion with a custom red hair band that was blinged out. Lovely! You can find them on facebook. https://www.facebook.com/bowsbloom.
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| Hair roses for adult event. |
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| Irish themed hair bows. |
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| Custom flowers to match school dresses. |
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| Custom fingerless gloves |
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| Ipod holder |
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| Custom sweater |
Siopa Brog Irish Dance Supplies was also present with a great assortment of dance supplies and things my daughter just had to have. I love how they spend time fitting dancers for the perfect shoe. https://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Siopa-Brog-Irish-Dance-Supplies/125489337511146.
Emerald Key had dresses, hair and accessories available, http://www.emeraldkeyonline.com/.
Youngblood Haircutters also had wigs and accessories, http://www.irishwigs.com/site/.
A vendor with paintings, clothing and jewelry was also in attendance. As always t-shirts were available.
Raffle: The reason I am bring up the raffle baskets is that I have never sen so many baskets at a feis. I didn't win which isn't new but I know several families that did. One woman won a Swarovski raffle basket worth $1,150. Shamrock Soaps had a nice basket of Just for Irish Dancer Bath and Body items. You can find a link to the Shamrock Soaps Blog on this site or look for their items on Etsy.com.
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| Shamrock Soaps Just for Irish Dancers Raffle Basket |
Feis Photographer: De Danann Photography was the official feis photographer. I can't wait for the pictures to be posted. Check out her facebook page to see her work or book a photo shoot.
https://www.facebook.com/?ref=tn_tnmn#!/pages/De-Danann-Photography/193376907393407
So overall this feis was great. Enjoyed the venue, pace of the feis on Sunday, ceili dancing, pool party and vendors. I expect their were problems with the feis, their always is, but I didn't experience any real issues. Well maybe one around awards for a 2 hand and an inverted dancer number causing the wrong the dancer to win. It was quickly resolved since the dancer who was listed as the winner was not in that event. Simple case of fat fingers. Will we be back next year? Yes, this feis is always fun and seems to get better each year.
Thanks for mentioning Shamrock Soaps. Sorry you didn't win the basket at the feis. I hope you had a good time though. :)
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