The Harrogate Competitive Festival for Music, Speech & Drama

Written By Martin Mann | HDCC Chief Executive

As you may know, the Harrogate Competitive Festival for Music, Speech and Drama has been running since 1936, making it one of the longest lasting festivals of its kind in the UK.

This type of event, where young people are able to showcase their talents, perform in front of a live audience and receive valuable feedback from professional adjudicators, is more vital than ever at a time when arts funding in schools is being drastically cut, resulting in fewer opportunities for young people to engage with the arts. 

In 2026 we are excited to be planning to celebrate our 90th anniversary - BUT: 

The festival has received no council funding for some years now, and the costs of the festival have risen. This is where we are looking for support from you - whether you have taken part in the festival yourself, whether as a volunteer, a supporter, an adjudicator or a participant, or you have family who have participated - a donation of any size will help the festival continue in the future.  

  • How your donation will help: 
    Help towards cost of hiring the brilliant facilities at Harrogate High School for 3 weekends. In 2024 it cost us £3.93 per performance minute to stage the festival. A £100 donation would pay for 25 minutes of adjudicated performance time. 

  • Cover print costs for our program. Printing the Programme & Syllabus and certificates cost £1,753 in 2024. 

  • Cover the cost of medals and certificates for prizewinners. A £20 donation would pay for 8 medals on lanyards. 

  • Cover the cost of hiring our professional adjudicators. A £10 donation will pay for just over 10 minutes of an adjudicator's time. 

    Everything else - the admin, the marketing and social media, the organisation, the planning, the stewards and the committee is volunteer-led. We are always looking for new volunteers to take part including the very important role of Festival Secretary.  

Email chairman@hcfmsd.co.uk for more information. 

This year we will have about 1200 people performing over the three festival weekends in March in about 32 adjudicated sessions. We have set the entry fees at levels we hope will not discourage anyone from entering but those and the door receipts will only cover about 60% of the overall costs. The difference has to come from donations and our reserves which our forecasts suggest might not be sufficient to enable us to stage a festival in 2027. 

If you are able to support the future of the festival with a donation, you can do so securely online at our website http://www.hcfmsd.co.uk/ 
 
You can follow us on Facebook and Instagram by searching for Harrogate  Competitive Festival to keep up with all our news and see interviews  
with our brilliant alumni, many of whom have gone on to careers in music  and drama. 

Paul Dutton - Chairman 
chairman@hcfmsd.co.uk 

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Martin Mann | HDCC Chief Executive https://www.harrogatechamber.co.uk/
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