Registration opened May 1st of 2012. 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 for that purpose. Please see Columbus Feis Rules and NAFC Rules for more detail.
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. Adult Registration materials will be available at 7;00 with competition commencing at 8:00 p.m. Early registration materials pick-up for the Saturday competitions at the High school is offered at Embassy Suites between 7:30 and 9:00 p.m.
Registration materials will be available in the High School Commons area at 7:30 Saturday morning. Opening Ceremonies for the feis are at 8:30 a.m., also in the High School Commons. Dance competitions for First Feis and Beginner through Championship begin at 9:00 a.m. in the High School; please refer to the Dance Schedule for details of stage location and dance order.
Exact times for specific competitions are impossible to predict. Stage assignments are subject to change feis day to accommodate the vagaries of the day; please be alert to the progress of your stage(s) and look for any posted changes. This is especially important after noon as some stages finish earlier.
Vocal competitions are held in rooms B152 and Instrumental in B185, respectively, between 9:00 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. with awards presented at noon. Arts and Crafts, Baking, and Art entries may be dropped off in the Arts and Crafts room B192 before 11:00 a.m. with awards presented at noon.
Saturday evening after the feis again finds us in the park, at the Irish Thunder Stage for the Parade of Champions at 8:30. Dancers who placed first, second or third and musicians who placed first in the feis are invited to display their talents before the gathered throngs.
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 2010 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.
Look for further opportunities to celebrate out rich Irish heritage in the future at the Columbus Feis. And don't forget to visit the Dublin Irish Festival which opens Friday and runs through Sunday evening..