Festival Policies

Guidelines for Participation

Students must be members in good standing of their school's respective performing ensembles in order to audition and participate in District 3 Festivals. If a school does not have a music program, a student may audition for District 3 Festivals as long as the student, parent, and private teacher understand the guidelines and policies of each Festival.

Also, if a school does not provide an ensemble at a specific grade level (i.e. 6th Grade Chorus), that does not preclude the teacher from nominating students to attend Festivals (i.e. 6th Grade Honors Festival) appropriate to the age of his/her students.

District 3 eligibility requirements follow the established MMEA eligibility requirements for the All-State Festival for our students at all grade levels. The only one of our festivals where these requirements do not apply in the Solo & Ensemble Festival which is open to students of private teachers as well as those participating in school programs.

MMEA Institutional Fee/Festival Participation Fee

The MMEA Institutional Fee for each school system should be paid in order for a school to participate in District 3 Festivals. Those schools who have not paid and cannot furnish an MMEA Institutional Number on their Festival Registration Forms will be charged an additional fee of $100.00 for each District 3 Festival or event in which they participate.

Student Behavior

No student is allowed to smoke or drink alcoholic beverages at any festival. Cells phones should not be used for conversing or texting during festival rehearsals. Students must follow any additional guidelines for each festival as outlined by the Host. Students who do not follow these guidelines may be asked to leave the festival and may face loss of eligibility for future festivals at the discretion of the District 3 Executive Board.

Video and Audio Recording

District 3 does not authorize video and audio recording of Festival performances with the intent of marketing tapes without proper payment of copyright fees. Local cable companies may legally tape and broadcast Festival performances. They are expected to follow ASCAP and BMI regulations regarding the sale of such recordings.

Photography

If a hosting school arranges for it, District 3 allows professionals to photograph our Honors Ensembles and to market those photos to the parents of the students involved. However, because of the many and varied legal ramifications concerning showing the faces of our students on the Internet, no photographs of District 3 Honors Ensembles or any of the students participating therein may be displayed on any website (not even our own!) for any purpose.

The only exception to this would be if participating schools were to include photos of their own students on their own websites and faces of students from other schools were not included.

District 3 does not authorize audience members or student participants to take photos during Festival rehearsals or Festival concerts. Further, the District assumes no responsibility for unauthorized photos taken by students or audience members that are subsequently shown on YouTube or other Internet venues.

Chaperones

All students attending District III Festivals must be chaperoned by a music director. (If directors make arrangements for another music director to chaperone their students, that is acceptable. Example: Directors from 2 small schools with few student attending may share the responsibility of chaperoning over the course of a 2 day festival.) Exceptions being cases where a school does not have a music director and therefore students are chaperoned by a parent.

It is the District's intent that all teachers who have students at festivals attend those festivals. If that is not possible, the teacher should contact the district chair at least two weeks prior to the Festival (as soon as possible in cases of emergencies) with details of the plan for student supervision.

It is recommended that, especially for auditions, a ratio of 10 students to one adult be adhered to.

Attendance

Students must attend all festival rehearsals in order to participate in the festival concert. There are no exceptions to this policy. It is each director's responsibility to ensure that their students are present at all rehearsals.

It is also each director's responsibility to make sure that his or her students understand this prior to any absences and to prevent a student of theirs who has missed some of the rehearsal time from attending subsequent rehearsals and the concert. Asking a student to leave a rehearsal after missing a previous one is the responsibility of that student's music teacher.

Payment of Fees

It is each director's responsibility to ensure that payments are made by the deadline, District 3 has late fee policy of $25 if payment is not received by the audition/festival.

Withdrawal from Participation

Schools are still responsible to pay the festival fees for any students who withdraw after the established deadline.

Rationale: Festival withdrawal deadlines are established to give Ensemble Managers sufficient time to replace students who need to withdraw. Penalties are imposed for the lack of pre-planning that creates a situation where there is not enough time to make the necessary contacts, transfer the music and train the replacement student. When that happens, the ensemble suffers because it is lacking one member. The student who would have been the replacement, had adequate notice been given, also suffers because he or she doesn't get the chance to participate in the Festival.

Penalty: Students who withdraw from Festival participation after the established withdrawal deadline will be ineligible to audition for any District 3 Festival the following year. Exceptions for bona fide family emergencies will be granted. Enforcement is up to each school's music teacher. Teachers are expected to pass on information regarding ineligible students as students progress to the next level. The District Chair is the final arbiter for any disagreements.

Withdrawal Procedure: As soon as a student notifies their own music teacher of a conflict which will prevent their attendance at an Honors Festival, that teacher should contact the Festival Manager for that ensemble to report the withdrawal. The teacher should immediately get the music from the withdrawn student and mail it back to the Manager or to the replacement student's school, if the manager is able to give them that information.

Late Auditions

Late auditions for District 3 Honors Festivals will not be permitted. Exceptions may be granted by the District Chair. The Chair's decision is final (see below for information). Any changes granted (if the managers will allow it) after the deadline has passed for online audition registration, will incur a fee per change/addition.

Late auditions will be permitted in cases where the director makes arrangements prior to the day of auditions. The only exceptions will be death in the student's family, weather preventing students from being transported to the auditions, or mechanical difficulties encountered en route to the auditions.

Arrangements will be made for vocal and instrumental judges (one each) to hear the late auditions at a specified time and site within 5 days of the regular auditions. These judges will declare the students they hear as fit or unfit for the Honors Festival and these students will be added at the end of their respective sections.

Specific instances which will be denied the late audition privilege include, but are not limited to: minor illness, appointments, vacation, sports conflicts (practice or game), conflicting rehearsals or performances. All possible efforts will be made to schedule students with conflicts on the date set for the auditions at times when they are able to attend.

Representation Policy

This policy applies to any school whose students auditioned for the festival, but after the selection process is not represented both vocally and instrumentally at the Festival. The auditions chair, festival ensemble managers, and music teacher(s) from the school in question will work together to find one suitable student (from among those who had auditioned) from the unrepresented school to add to one of the already selected ensembles in which that school was not otherwise represented. The addition of students will be done if and only if it is beneficial to the students and not detrimental to the ensemble. This policy also includes the Honors Ensembles at Festivals which use a nomination process.

In the case of a Festival which has more than one type of ensemble (2 choruses, etc.) , only one student from the unrepresented school needs to be selected to be in one of the choruses.