The 2024 Festival will soon be upon us, how time flies!

I would like to express my thanks to all those people who contribute to the planning and the running of the Festival, in particular my hard-working colleagues on the DPAF Committee without whom of course the event could not take place.  I would also like to thank the many volunteers who act as stewards, certificate writers etc. and give their time freely for the cause.

As usual, DPAF will take place at South Street Baptist Church in Exeter and we are hugely grateful to the church for all its support.

Our main concern every year regarding the Festival is its funding.  The nature of such events is that our costs cannot be matched by the income from entry fees without the entry fees being set as a prohibitively high level. This means that we typically incur losses in the region of £3,000 each year and we have to find funding to cover that.  In the last two years our losses have been covered by one-off donations, but we are very keen to find a way to make the Festival funding more sustainable.  If you have any ideas about this or have a business that would like to be involved with us as Sponsors please do get it touch with me by email at chairmandpaforguk  (chairmandpaforguk)     

As we all know, arts education continues to experience significant funding pressures. In this scenario I believe that the Festival plays an important role in giving our young people (and some older ones!) something to work towards and the opportunity to come together, learn from each other and benefit from the valuable feedback given by our highly experienced adjudicators.

Whether you are a performer, a teacher, relative, friend or simply an interested party we appreciate your support and we look forward to seeing you at one of our many events in March 2024!

Peter Macklin, Chair