South West Novice Dance Festival Annual Report, 2024 - 2025
The festival for 2024, again ran for a day and half due to the increase of demand. The Trustees were absolutely delighted with the turn out of dancers and there was very positive feedback from them and the parents, guardians and dance teachers.
The dance festival was again held at the King Edward VI Community College in Totnes, and again were very pleased with this venue. Tom Greig from the venue is a big help during the festival and goes above and beyond to help make the festival a success. Due to the different layout of the back stage area, Tom now handles the music and lighting during the festival on top of everything else.
The next dance festival will take place in 2026 due to a family occasion in 2025 which is being held very close to the usual time that we run the dance festival. This decision has been taken as the majority of the volunteers will be involved in this family occasion and it was felt that it would be too much to run the festival in 2025. A date for 2026 will be obtained very shortly with the venue and announced on the festivals’ website and social media pages.
All of the Trustees from the 2024 – 2025 financialperiod have remained the same and we haven’t received any interest from others to be Trustees or members of the festival. More information on them can be found at the end of this document.
2024 Dance Adjudicator
Dance Adjudicator – Amanda Skevington
Amanda has been teaching dance for over twenty-five years in all theatrical styles and is a member of the IDTA, NATD and ISTD. She further trained in contemporary dance and worked with some of the most prolific choreographers including Akram Khan, Richard Alston, Lea Anderson, Paul Douglas and Jacob Marley. Amanda is now the fellow Principal of a dance school based in Derby and Burton Upon Trent and continues to create work in conjunction with local community arts organisations and her school was recently recognised as a Dance School of the Year Finalist .
Amanda is honoured to be a dance adjudicator for the British and International Federation of Festivals.
In 2023 the adjudicator was able to bring a scribe with them and we felt that this would be best practice going forward. This can be a very stressful job if you haven’t done this before and we do struggle to get a volunteer to undertake this role. We were delighted that Amanda was able to bring a scribe with her for the festival in 2024 and this will be something that we hope will continually happen for future adjudicators.
2024 Volunteers
A big thank you goes to all of our 2022 volunteers, without them, the festival wouldn’t be possible
Linzi Bell Alison Matthewman Charlene Matthewman Stuart Matthewman William Matthewman Abigail Scotchmer George Scotchmer Olivia Scotchmer Gary Teague
Sponsors for Life
Again we would like to thank our two main sponsors for life; TQ Print & Design and Firefly! They are both located in Totnes town centre.
Friends of the Festival
We would like to continually acknowledge and say a big thank you to all of our Friends of the Festival that donated money to help set the festival up.
Pete Cole Louise Knapman-singh Stuart Matthewman Sue Cook Joanne Lau Gary Scotchmer Tessa Harris Alison Matthewman Eileen Wooltorton Sue Irish Jean Matthewman
The Trustees
Trustee Chair, Charlene Matthewman, 2020 - Ongoing
After maternity leave, Charlene is now back to full-time work and remains the Trustee Chair. Charlene’s professionals job is as a Events Manager and Communications Manager by trade with over 10 year's event management experience. She used to dance up until the age of 20 and attended a local dance school in Plymouth until she left for University in ballet, tap and jazz. Charlene also did Theatre Studies as one of her A-Levels and enjoyed this time of her education! As she used to dance herself, she realised how much confidence this gave her within dance and in life, also going on to explore other methods of dancing, attending contemporary dance classes at the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth for a few years before going to university.
Secretary, Abi Scotchmer, 2020 - Ongoing
Abi is about to start a senior role within the local hospital and is a qualified Mental Health Nurse. Abi is also a mum to three children. One of her children dances and takes parts in shows and festivals. She used to dance as a child, up until the age of 14; she mostly enjoyed being on stage for the pantomimes. Abi enjoyed drama at school and did a GCSE in Performing Arts. Abi also enjoys learning about different cultures and travelling around world and outdoor sea swimming.
Treasurer, Alison Matthewman, 2022 - Ongoing
Alison works as a Community Care Worker for adult social care in Plymouth. She has instrumental to the running of the festival and enjoys reading out the names of the dancers before they’re about to preform. Alison has also scribed in past year’s of the festival.
Safeguarding Officer – Linzi Bell, 2020 - Ongoing
Linzi is currently a Primary School Teacher, as well as Science lead for the local district of Plymouth. She is a big lover of musicals and the theatre. Linzi used to dance as a child and take part in many dance festivals in Cumbria. She continues to choreograph dances for a small number of children to perform at dance festivals and even has a baby ballet class. Linzi enjoys going to the beach, dancing and tending to her lovely garden. Linzi has scribed for past festivals.
End of March 2025
South West Novice Dance Festival
Trustees Report and Financial Statement
The following accounts have been prepared to show the money spent for the 2024 South West Novice Dance Festival.
Statement of Financial Activities
| Income | |
|---|---|
| Participants | 1719.70 |
| Catering (drinks & snacks) | 437.00 |
| Tickets, programmes & ribbons | 1262.00 |
| Sponsored Trophies | 20.00 |
| Total Income | 3438.70 |
| Expenditure | |
| Hall Hire, changing rooms | 860.00 |
| Adjudicator Fees & Expenses | 903.64 |
| Printing (Certs, Exam sheets, Programme etc) | 214.82 |
| Misc (Equipment for Festival) | 180.08 |
| Medals & Trophies | 449.50 |
| Replacement of Trophies | 129.50 |
| Catering to sell at festival (tea/coffee/hot choc & snacks) | 312.39 |
| Federation Membership 2024 | 159.00 |
| Public Liability Insurance | 105.00 |
| Lunch & refreshments for volunteers | 200.03 |
| Wristbands | 138.60 |
| Total Expenditure | 3061.70 |
| Surplus | 538.89 |
| Summary of Bank Account | |
| Brought forward from 2024 festival |
2923.90 |
| Expenditure from 2024 festival |
3061.70 |
| Income from 2024 festival |
3600.59 |
| 2024 Surplus |
538.89 |
| Total in bank as at March 2025 |
2923.90 |
From the accounts provided above, we have £2923.90 in the bank at present which we believe is enough to run the festival for 2025 – however we have taken the decision to run the festival in 2026 due to a family occasion happening around the time that we usually run the festival in 2025.
2024 Festival Account
Income
We were slightly down on our ticket, programme and ribbon income this year which could be due to having less participants than we did last year, however, participants danced more sections which led to a higher increase in participant income. It is felt that we don’t need to print off as many programmes to sell for the next festival.
Outgoings
The cost for the festival was more than last year due to the following factors:
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The hall hire increased since last year due to the raise in the technician costs, which effected the hourly rate and daily charge.
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The adjudicator was from further away therefore the mileage was more and the hotel cost was higher than last year due to inflation
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Volunteer who usually makes all of the volunteering catering was unable to undertake the role so we therefore had to buy ready made sandwiches etc from the shop which was higher than making the food
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There were a significant amount of trophies missing this year which we had to replace
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Wristbands were purchased this year as we were running low; we bought a bulk of wristbands on our first year which has since been used at previous festivals
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More medals were bought than previous years due to large sections and the pre-empting that the adjudicator would want to give out more medals. It has been noted that we will probably only need to purchase a higher number of silver medals. The cost was also more this year due to the company pre-making the medals as the volunteers didn’t have time to do this like previous years.
Miscellaneous items include baskets for CDs which were previously borrowed and we were unable to borrow them this year, postage of paper signs to the venue which set them up before we get there, new quiet metal signs, USB to headphone adaptor for music, new trays to sort marketing sheets and certificates and batteries for lamps.
We’d like to note that we feel we only need to print 100 programmes for the next festival.
The Trustees are please to see the amount of money in its bank account which means we maybe able to offer some form of a scholarship for someone going forward, but this is yet to be discussed.