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Registration is scheduled to open May 1st of 2010. We encourage participants to take advantage of the convenience of the e-Feis online registration system, but we will accept mail-in registration and provide printable forms in pdf format.
Remember, the feis includes a number of disparate activities and competitions spread across two days and two adjacent venues. Friday evening features the Adult Ceili Competition at the Ceili Tent just inside the southeast entrance to the Dublin Irish Festival in Coffman Park.
Essay and Irish Language Competitions. Open dancing. Opening Ceremonies. Dance competitions. Arts and Crafts. Instrumental and Vocal. Baking. Art. Parade of Champions. Teachers and Adjudicators Dance.
The explosive growth of interest in Irish Step Dancing seen in the last five years of the past century may have eased a bit recently, but considerable passion remains still. In 2009 about 1200 competitors gathered in Dublin, Ohio to dance, to sing, to play their musical instruments, and to display their artistry and skills to the gathered throngs... and the judges. Surely every participant was a winner, having garnered the prize of comradery and joy in the richness of this shared experience.
We celebrate the heritage and traditions of our Irish lineage through the art and the crafts that were carried in the hearts and hands - and feet - of so many souls who left the land of their birth. At the Twenty-Fifth Annual Columbus Feis the celebration was joyous indeed. Competitors from the first Columbus Feis, many of them now Irish Dance teachers, were invited to reunite and dance on the Irish Thunder Stage at the Dublin Irish Festival on Saturday evening. This was not competition, but rather an opportunity to gather and celebrate the artistry of movement so much a part of their lives.
For while competition can sharpen skills and encourage the pursuit of excellence it is good to remember that joyful celebration of life and a sense of the gathered community are at the heart of the dance. With that in mind we hope to offer a few similar opportunities this year at the thirtieth annual Columbus Feis.
Immediately after the Adult Ceili Competition Friday evening we are planning to offer an open dance for the young and the young at heart. An opportunity to try out a few steps with the experienced and those not so much so; an opportunity to just have fun.
Along with the Parade of Champions at the Irish Thunder Stage in the park following the Saturday afternoon competitions at the high school we hope to invite any of the Irish Dance teachers or adjudicators to gather together for an opportunity to dance together. These are the people who represent the near past of our lively and living artform; many the inspiration and mentors of the dancers who have competed at the feis and performed at the festival. The musicians who played at the feis may be invited to join them for accompanyment.