This year’s Manx Music, Speech and Dance Festival (The Guild) got underway on Saturday with an array of talented classes.

The festival began the Villa Marina on Saturday, April 26 and runs until this Saturday, May 3, with eight full days of competition packed with all genres of music, speech, drama and dance.

Adjudicators during this year’s festival include the likes of Annie Kissack, Belinda Mikhail, Catherine Ingram, Daniel Chandler, Melanie Spanswick, Nicholas Garman, Peter Dayson and Rachel Clarkson.

The opening morning saw a variety of performances get underway in both the Douglas entertainment complex’s Royal Hall and the Promenade Suite.

Classes involved Manx folk dancing, country dancing, sword dancing, songs from musicals and a variety of brass solo and ensemble classes.

Dance group Skeddan Jiarg were the winners of both the Doris Larsen Cup for Manx folk dancing and the Sheila Corkhill Memorial Cup for country/national dancing, while cornet-playing Teddy Price was the overall winner of the brass instrumental solo class (Years 7 and 8).

The Guild is one of the oldest running festivals in the island, with 2025 being its 133rd year.

Classes cover all sorts of disciplines, from singing to drama and dance to piano, covering every type of music from folk, classical and pop.

It was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid pandemic, but has since made its return, complete with some new classes.

After a full week of classes, this year’s Guild will conclude with choral performances in the Royal Hall and folk songs/bible readings in the Promenade Suite on Saturday, May 3.

The Cleveland Medal final, which is one of the most prestigious awards at the event, will take place on Friday, May 2 in the Royal Hall at 7pm.