Syllabuses

 These are now available in Harrogate Library. See our display there.

The Syllabus for 2026 is now available in print

 The printed version is now being distributed.  It will be available in Libraries in North Yorkshire and in 

Music House

  18 Cheltenham Parade, Harrogate HG1 1DB Directions 

https://www.windstruments.co.uk/contact

Monday : Closed
Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday: Closed
Thursday – Saturday: 9AM – 5.30PM
Sunday: Closed 

The 2026 Syllabus is complete

The 2026 Syllabus is up on our website, hcfmsd.co.uk, and has been sent to the printer.  Once printed, copies will be distributed to Music House in Harrogate and to North Yorkshire libraries.

For updates and other news, please follow our Social Media sites. 

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We have extended the Debut classes to include anyone who wants to perform for fun or for experience, so if you enjoyed it in 2025 as a Debutante you may still enter these classes again this year.  The section name has changed from Debut to Debut/Development. 

The entry system is open.  Well done to Fiona who made the first entry this year. 😎

 

Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire BIFF Regional Finals

 Our two 2025 competition winners Evy Reed and Thomas Heath performed at the Regional Championships in Leeds on Saturday. Evy was up against seven other speech & drama performers while Thomas was in a group of ten instrumentalists.

They both performed brilliantly and we congratulate them on taking the time to represent the Festival at this prestigious event.

Alan Connell

Special Events in September and October

 One of our singing adjudicators, Jacqueline Edwards, is a descendant of the famous English dramatic contralto, Dame Clara Butt DBE who performed from the 1890's to the 1920's. She will be presenting an illustrated talk about Dame Clara in September, on behalf of the Festival. This is the flyer .

And this is Jacqueline's biography.

The event starts at 7:15 pm on Friday the 26th September, in the Victoria Suite at the Crown Hotel Harrogate.

AND THEN on the 21st of October we are having a drum kit masterclass at St Aidan's School, Harrogate, featuring international professional session drummer Cam Meek. Further details to follow soon

 THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Festival's Annual General Meeting (AGM) will be held on Saturday the 7th June at the Friends Meeting House, 12A Queen Parade, Harrogate, HG1 5PP, commencing at 10:30am (Coffee/tea & biscuits from 10:00am).

If you donate to, or volunteer for the Festival you are entitled to vote at the AGM.

This is the agenda:

Alan Connell

Treasurer

Problems with the CAF Donate system

 We are currently experiencing difficulties with our donations system via the CAF Donate facility.

This is a screenshot of the website News page. It appears that donations made by initially using the red Donate button at the top of the screen will fail at the final, CAPTCHA hurdle whereas those made via the red Next button will work. You will get the same donating options either way.

We are working to fix this but in the meantime please bear with us!!

Alan Connell

Treasurer

The Young Musician Championship and the Speech & Drama Championship

Here are the winners of the 2025 Championships, held in the Final Concert on the 23rd March.

Thomas Heath, percussionist, is our Young Musician of the Festival and Evy Reed, actor, is the Speech & Drama Champion.  Well done to both of them.

Press release from Tom Gordon, our MP, about the Festival

Three of the Festival Trustees recently visited Tom Gordon, the new Member of Parliament for the area. We outlined the history and ethos of the Festival to him and discussed ways of accessing new funding sources now that local government support has as good as ceased.

He recently published the following press release which also contains comments from our Chairman, Paul Dutton.

"In Parliament yesterday (27th February), Tom raised an issue originally highlighted to him by a local Harrogate and Knaresborough organisation, namely funding for performing arts. During a recent visit to The Harrogate Competitive Festival for Music, Speech & Drama, they raised the funding issues they have faced since local authority funding for the performing arts was withdrawn in 2016. 

The Harrogate Competitive Festival for Music, Speech & Drama supports local children and young people in Harrogate and Knaresborough to grow in confidence through performing, as well as boosting people’s skills. They have operated for nearly 90 years, are run by volunteers and offer 250 different classes and categories as part of their operations. Their competitions regularly have over 800 entries yearly, with over 1,300 children taking part. 

Tom asked the Minister (Lucy Powell, Leader of the House of Commons) whether she would make time for a debate on the importance of performing arts and on expanding Government funding for them, to help build children’s confidence and skills. 

In response, the Minister said that she knew how important it is for children to gain experience performing and being assessed. She mentioned the boosting of local government funding by the Government, and said that they were looking at how they can support culture and a creative curriculum for young people. 

Commenting, Tom said: 

“This is what being an MP is all about – raising awareness for Harrogate and Knaresborough and the great organisations that support local people and culture.

“Today I raised an important issue brought to me by constituents – the funding of performing arts. They are easy to overlook, but participating can be an enormous confidence and skills boost for children, helping them as they grow up. 

“I look forward to continuing to work with local organisations, raising awareness and supporting them to continue to deliver for local people.”

 

Paul Dutton, Chairman of Harrogate Competitive Festival for Music, Speech & Drama, added: 

"Past competitors have gone on to pursue high flying careers within the arts. 

Included in the many are Oliver Briscombe, who recently secured his first film role starring alongside Ralph Fiennes, Amara Okereke a principal lead soloist in West End musicals, William Dutton who won the BBC Young Musicians String Final, Paul Lunn who has sung and acted across the world and Claire Marsden who recently played at the Proms Concerts in London.

These and many others say that the Festival provided a supportive environment that encouraged and built confidence in both their performance and life skills."  "

This is helpful support for the work of the Festival. The 2025 Festival starts on Friday at 6pm.

Alan Connell

Treasurer

CHANGE TO THE FESTIVAL ENTRY DATE

 The current weather is playing havoc with schools' arrangements and we have decided to put the Entry Date back to midnight on Sunday the 19th January to give everyone more time to decide what they want to do at this year's Festival.

If you have decided on some entries but not everything, you can start to build your basket on our system which can be found at https://hcf.runmyfestival.net/runMyFestival/security/welcome.jsf re-visiting it later to complete the package.

Alan Connell

Treasurer

CORRECTION TO THE 2025 SYLLABUS REGARDING BRASS CLASSES

 The Provisional Timetable in the 2025 Syllabus shows the brass classes as scheduled for the first weekend of the Festival.

In fact they will be held during the second weekend, from the 14th to the 16th March. The adjudicator will be Alan Morrison . 

Alan Connell

Treasurer