Entries for Voice Over Festival of Performing Arts now open

The Voice Over Festival of Performing Arts is one of the most distinguished festivals in the field of performing arts in Sri Lanka. It is a member of the British Arts Festivals Association (BAFA). BAFA is UK’s longest established festival network covering the widest span of arts festivals. These include some of the large international cultural events such as the Edinburgh International Festival and the Brighton Festival through to small dynamic festivals such as the Winchester Hat and the Corsham Festival in Wiltshire. The festival is supported by the Trinity College, London Sri Lanka centre. 

The Voice Over Festival has been conducted in Sri Lanka for the last five years and seen tremendous success with over 2,000 participants from around the island participating annually.

 This year, along with a change in management, the festival has seen an unprecedented leap in numbers and is likely to see a nationwide participation of more than 4,000 children and adults.

The team of adjudicators headed by Dr. John Bielby, flown in from UK will be travelling around the country to conduct the festival over a period of 50-60 days, with over 1,000 awards to be given out, including regional championships, culminating in the grand finals in Colombo.

The festival will take place at auditoriums around the island in areas such as Batticaloa, Bandarawela, Anuradhapura and Galle between 17 May and 30 June 2013. Entries for the festival are now open. Due to the volume of entries that have been pouring in, the closing date has been extended to 20 April.

Chief Adjudicator, Dr. John Bielby (BMus, PhD, GLCM, FLCM, LRAM, LTCL, Hon. FIEMS) was born in York, in the north of England, and studied music, speech and drama at the London College of Music. He holds diplomas from several institutions including the LCM, Royal Academy of Music and Trinity College, London. The Voice Over Festival is also privileged to have as its Vice Patron, Professor Andre De Quadros, an internationally acclaimed conductor, ethnomusicologist, music educator, and human rights activist.

The festival board has added a range of new subjects to the festival portfolio to encourage the youth of the nation to come together to explore, exchange and exhibit their varied talents and abilities within the fields of performing arts and creative writing.

Sri Lanka has a wide pool of largely untouched and under developed talent and prevailing post war conditions provide the perfect opportunity for an artistic and creative revolution to burst forth out of a 30-year ethnic conflict.

The festival syllabus has been carefully researched in order to offer a system of assessment that is direct and concise whilst allowing our candidates plenty of free choice of material in a clearly structured festival system. This year the syllabus categories cover the subjects of speech and drama, music, dance and written skills.

The Voice Over Festival of Performing Arts is committed to the maintenance of high standards and to a belief in the educational and cultural value of the arts.  The festival’s affiliation to a reputed international network makes the Voice Over Festival an ideal avenue through which a nationwide expansion in arts activities and arts education can take place.

To enter the Voice Over Festival, email [email protected]  or call hotline (071)6994466 and request the syllabus and general information booklet, which is also available as an eBook. For more information visit www.facebook/voiceoverfestivalofperformingarts.