Surprise!

A Festival like Skipton Music Festival doesn’t just “happen”!   Festival Week is the culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people throughout the year.

We start to plan for next year’s Festival almost as soon as the last one is finished.  The Committee review how it went, note areas for change and begin to bring ideas for the next Syllabus.  Indeed, planning the adjudicators and accompanists generally needs to be done some two years in advance – and, even then, some are already booked up!

The venue needs to be booked and we need to check that all the insurance and safety checks are in place.

Through the summer, the Syllabus Committees work out what classes to offer and a syllabus is compiled, ready for publication at the beginning of the Autumn Term

While we wait for the entries to flood in, a lot of the practical details are addressed: do we need publicity materials?  Leaflets? Banners?  This is also a good time to introduce new volunteers to a number of tasks.

The Stewards officer will be gathering our band of Stewards – we need about 20 Stewards every day and we will be writing to or visiting a number of Friends, Sponsors and Advertisers

Once Christmas is over, the entries begin to flood in.  Now begins the really busy time.  Bookings need to be checked – and the musicians on the committee will oversee the entries to check that they comply with the class specifications.  As the class entries begin to build, we can begin to formulate a timetable for the week.  While we try to preserve the established  pattern, a flood of entries into one class may mean changes.

Once the entries are closed, anomalies checked, missing music chased and special pleadings considered, the programme can be finalised and all performers emailed with their times.

A huge administrative task now begins.  To comply with legislation that’s designed (quite rightly) to protect young people in commercial entertainment, we have to list and register every child – and write to every head teacher for permission, even though that has been given to the child directly.

And eventually, the programmes are printed, the mark sheets produced, the certificates sorted and the crew aboard.

We are ready to start it all over again!