Counting down to the 2016 Festival

All entries in - one or two more checks to run.  

The process now well under way to layout the schedule.  The team are working hard.  We are on draft 2 already.  Only a couple more iterations to run before we can publish.  Hold your hats on.

If you are excited join in the twitter using #HCFMSD

An Event Not To Miss

Our 2015 Concerto Class winner, Maria Marshall, will be performing Elgar's Cello Concerto with the Harrogate Philharmonic Orchestra, on Saturday 13th February, at St Mark's Church on Leeds Road, Harrogate.

The concert starts at 19:30 with Elgar's attractive Dream Children suite and ends with Brahms' magnificent 2nd Symphony.

Tickets cost £10 and will be available at the door and on-line at  
http://www.harrogatephilharmonicorchestra.org.uk/tickets.htm and from Castlegate Books, Knaresborough and P & C (Pomp and Circumstance) on Skipton Road, Harrogate. Please telephone 01423 545188 if further information is required.

ADC

The current state of play

Entries for this year's Festival finally closed on 10 January and, as in previous years, there was a last-minute rush. With over 1,000 entries, slightly more than half of which are in the various music classes, we should see over 3,000 people "on the stage" over the course of the three Festival weekends. There will be over 120 hours of adjudication. The final programme is now being devised.

Our new Virtuoso Class, for the Elizabeth Hopkins Trophy, in which performers must play two different pieces each one on a different instrument from different disciplines, has attracted a good entry. This is a really exciting addition to the Festival programme.

The classes for choirs of all ages and numbers have attracted a large entry this year.  It is a real opportunity for people to perform with their friends and fellow pupils and is a constant (usually large) audience pleaser, so it is excellent to see it being so popular.

On the Speech front, Verse Speaking appears to be very popular this year, especially with our younger performers, so let's hope they are all assiduously practising now! The Reading classes are also well subscribed and, as a "practitioner", I am especially looking forward to the talk on Vegetarianism to be given by one performer!

Finally there will be no short of Drama  at this year's Festival, with several of the acting classes looking very popular.

                                     AND THERE WILL BE UKULELES!!!!

Coming up to the Entry Closing Date

The closing date for paper entries was last Saturday. Just 6 more days to the on-line entry closing date (10th January).

The volunteers are winding up their computers and polishing their printers, ready to process the entries and work out how they can possibly create a Program schedule to fit them all in over those three glorious weekends, starting on 26th February.

We currently have just over 150 entries and we are expecting at least another 1400, so, many more to come. Don't miss out; get your entry in today by going to our dedicated on-line system.

It is very good to see that, so far, we have competitors from far and wide, including Rugby, Durham, Newcastle and Edinburgh. Not quite international yet, but we are getting there!!

ADC