A new Marking scheme will come into force from April 1st 2024. The current scheme had been in place since the 80’s and was in need of an update to reflect the current core values of Festivals who are members of The British and International Federation of Festivals.
The marks bands have been widened to allow adjudicators greater flexibility and the Descriptors and Criteria have been reworded giving performers a fuller understanding of what they achieved.
The main differences between the new and current scheme is that the Descriptor bands have increased from 6 to 7 and the number of marks available within the bands from 3 to 5. This will mean that effectively entrants will start from a lower mark base of 65 compared to the current base of 75. Descriptors for Music and Speech & Drama are slightly different.
The Music, Speech & Drama tables below as well as The Dance table will be uploaded to the website after 1st April