Welcome to the official home page of the Manx Music Festival (The Manx Competitive Music, Speech and Dance Festival to give it its full name) or “The Guild” as it is affectionately known on the Island.
Manx Music, Speech and Dance Festival 2025 is now well underway! Day One was an amazing day of brass solos and ensembles, folk and national dancing, singing and our wonderful Dragging it Up and Anything Goes.
Tickets are available on the Villa Gaiety website, at The Villa Marina and at The Welcome Centre - all day tickets which will get you into every morning, afternoon and evening session for the day, are £5.00 each plus the Villa Gaiety booking fee of 25p per ticket. You can also purchase a full week ticket at £35, with each additional full week ticket being £25!
If you'd like to get more involved please get in touch; we're always looking out for volunteers to help us over our 8 days of classes.
Dates for next year:
Saturday 25th April to 2nd May 2026 inclusive
The 2026 syllabus will be available later this year so look out for that!
The Isle of Man has very strong musical traditions and since 1892, when it was formed, The Guild through its competitive nature, has provided motivation to improve, initially for choirs, followed by solo singing and later to a wide range of music, spoken word and dance. The climax of the Festival occurs with the competition for the Cleveland, Ohio (USA) Manx Society’s Gold Medal, donated annually by this organisation and competed for by the three highest marked ladies and three highest marked men from across the special solo classes held during the week.
The Festival is a member of the British and International Federation of Festivals.
The Festival is held annually in April at the Villa Marina on Douglas promenade. To see the range and size of competitions check out our results section.