This year’s Isle of Wight Music, Dance and Drama Festival (IWMDDF) has been hailed as a success, with hundreds of winning and highly commended entrants, despite difficulties arising from the very beginning.

The 2023 Festival had a total of 1,501 entries across all three disciplines, those being music, speech and drama.

Organisers say that 101 entries, mainly in the speech and drama section, were withdrawn due to complications caused by council legislation affecting children who attend state schools, requiring an individual performance licence if any part of their school day was missed.

The Festival has received positive feedback, and the County Press has been inundated with individual, group and dance school successes.

Isle of Wight County Press:

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Chris Hartley, fundraising and marketing officer of the IWMDDF, said: “We are pleased to say that our 93rd Festival, which ended on March 25, has been successful with many positive comments made by both people taking part and the adjudicators.

“To try to help overcome some of the issues, where possible the sessions in the music and dance sections were rescheduled to be held out of school hours.

“This strategy does not help in classes involving groups entered by schools which in reality have to be held during the school day.

“The syllabus for our 94th Festival, 100 years from our formation in 1924, will be available in early September. Please follow our Facebook page to keep up-to-date with what is happening.”

Isle of Wight County Press:

Bryan Husband, British and International Federation of Festival adjudicator, said: “I enjoyed immensely seeing and meeting so many well-prepared performers at the IWMDDF over several days; what impressed me most was the level of preparation and the calm and focussed demeanour of all but a very few performers.

“As a Federation adjudicator of 17 years, widely travelled now, it was especially enjoyable to watch performances on handbells, and the organ, also to see and hear original compositions – these classes are few and far between nowadays, so it was a real treat for these to be part of the Festival still.

“I wish and hope sincerely that the Festival moves from strength to strength over the next few years, embracing as it does, developments both in technology and the stylistic challenges in music performance.”

Isle of Wight County Press:

Thank you to everyone who sent us photos from this year's Festival. We have tried to include as many of your pictures in stories as possible, both online and in the newspaper, so we apologise if we've missed yours!