Enter the Voice Over Festival of Performing Arts in Sri Lanka

The Voice Over Festival of Performing Arts is a festival 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, including the Edinburgh International Festival through to small dynamic festivals such as the Winchester Hat. The Festival is supported by the Trinity College, London Sri Lanka centre.

The Voice Over Festival has been conducted in Sri Lanka for the past five years and seen tremendous success with over 2,000 participants from around the island participating annually. This year, 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 the UK will be travelling around the country to conduct the Festival over 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 be held in auditoriums around the island in Batticaloa, Bandarawela, Anuradhapura, and Galle, between May 17 and June 30. 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 April 20.

Chief Adjudicator, Dr. John Bielby 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. He was a lecturer at the Teacher Training College in Brentwood, Essex, and senior lecturer at Mabel Fletcher College, Liverpool, and an in-service tutor in the Department of Education at the University of Liverpool. Dr. Bielby has been an examiner for the LCM for over 30 years.

The Voice Over Festival has as its Vice Patron, Professor Andre De Quadros, an internationally acclaimed conductor, ethnomusicologist, music educator, and human rights activist.

He is the former Chair of the Boston University Music Education Department. Among the many offices held by him are, conductor of the Manado State University Choir, advisor to the board of the International Federation for Choral Music, member of the World Choir Council and a member for the Steering Committee of Conductors Without Borders.The Festival syllabus has been carefully selected to include speech and drama, music, dance and written skills, to encourage youth to come together to explore, exchange and exhibit their varied talents and abilities. Sri Lanka has a wide pool of largely untouched and under-developed talent and the prevailing conditions provide the perfect opportunity for an artistic and creative revolution to burst forth. 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.

For more information visit, www.facebook/voiceoverfestivalofperformingarts.