These are some of my thoughts about Rakkasah 2008, presented in no particular order.

•The seating. Not enough, and the chairs in front of the speakers were useless and uncomfortable. I saw some people wearing. A center aisle is needed in the food building. Was tough to get in and out of the middle.

•The placement of the speakers. Awkward for the audience to sit in front of them

•The class I took had to contend with maintenance person changing lights during the instruction. Our instruction was accompanied by the beep-beep of the reach equipment moving around to complete the task. Should have been done another time. Really took away from the class, which already wasn’t that great.

•Stage lighting in the food building was too orangey and yellow.

•Pretty unimpressed by Suhalia’s performance on Sunday. Too long and kinda blah.

•The Gem Show people were annoying.

•There seemed to be less vendors and some of the ones that were there had fewer products.

•Cranky vendors. Several of the vendors I had dealings with were cranky. Not sure what that was about, but it makes it hard to patronize someone’s business that doesn’t seem to have the time or perceived desire to assist with purchases.

•Naming of the stages. Just call them by the building names. I missed a couple of performances I really wanted to see because I got the stages mixed up.

•The distance between stages. I felt like two separate events going on because of the distance between the buildings. I ended up not spending as much time in the other building because of the hassle of going back and forth. While the weather was great this year, what about subsequent years if there is inclement weather? That dash between stages will be uncomfortable and awkward.

•Paying for parking. Not only do I have to for over $12 to get in, but an additional $5 a day for parking for $17 a day entry fee. Even with an advance ticket, the extra $15 for the three days has just cut out an entire vendor or food purchase. I understand that the event doesn’t get this money that it goes to the fairgrounds, but that still doesn’t mitigate my budget.

•The shoe police guy at the after party chasing people down who weren’t wearing shoes around the lobby area. Heeelllloooo….we are belly dancers here…..part of the outfit dude. I understand it is a safety and health issue, but sheesh.

•Vendor parking and pack up was a nightmare. Definitely need some reorganization here.

•No seating for food court. If it hadn’t been nice outside, it would have been much worse.