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Contest | Contest Guidelines

The USGB Ukulele Band of the Year Contest 2020

(For the rules in the 2019 Contest, click here.)

Rules

  1. General
    1. The contest shall be known as "The USGB Ukulele Band of the Year Contest 2020" ("The Contest").
    2. The contest shall be run by the Ukulele Society of Great Britain ("The Society")
    3. For the purposes of these rules, the term "ukulele" includes the terms "ukulele banjo" and "banjolele".
    4. For the purposes of these rules, a bass guitar (but not any other type of guitar) shall count as a ukulele.
    5. For the purposes of these rules, the term "amateur" is defined as "someone who does something as a hobby and not as a job", per the Collins English Dictionary
  2. Eligibility for Entry
    1. The contest is open to all amateur local ukulele bands based in the U.K. For clarification, bands may contain an individual who is not an amateur as long as no particular emphasis is placed on that individual in the band's video (other than for the purposes of directing the band where appropriate).
    2. Bands must comprise a minimum of three persons playing ukuleles (soprano, concert, tenor, baritone, bass or ukulele banjo).
    3. Bands may contain additional persons not playing ukuleles provided that the number of such persons does not exceed 50% of the number of ukulele players.
      For clarification:-
      a band of 4 people must have at least 3 people playing ukuleles,
      a band of 5 people must have at least 4 people playing ukuleles,
      a band of 6 people must have at least 4 people playing ukuleles,
      a band of 7 people must have at least 5 people playing ukuleles,
      a band of 8 people must have at least 6 people playing ukuleles,
      a band of 9 people must have at least 6 people playing ukuleles,
      etc.
    4. Bands which include members of the committee of the Society may participate in the contest provided always that in the event of any dispute resolution under clause 6a of these rules, such person may not be permitted to be involved in the dispute settlement.
    5. All entries must be played live without the use of any electronic devices other than amplifiers. (The use of effects such as reverb, delay, etc., is permitted).
      • Bands may not use loopers, electronic drum machines, pre-recorded tracks or any similar types of electronic aids.
      • Bands may not use any multi-tracking techniques.
    6. Videos entered for the contest must be recorded in one take. It is not permitted to edit recordings of several takes into a single video.
  3. Categories of Entry
    1. There will be two categories of entry, "Performance Bands" and "Local Groups".
    2. Performance Bands are bands which concentrate on performance (at gigs, festivals, etc.) These bands normally have a fixed number of players and do not welcome outsiders who might wish to play with them on occasion. Performance Bands might normally have between 3 and 6 members but this is not a requirement for the contest.
    3. Local Groups are groups of players who have a more relaxed approach to their playing and are happy for outsiders to come along to their practice sessions. Local Groups often encourage beginners to join them and the size of of the groups can vary, often having several tens of members.
  4. Entry to the Contest
    1. Bands wishing to enter the contest must complete the online entry form no later than midnight on the last day of July.
      • The name and email address of the person making the application.
      • The name of the band.
      • The type of band - Performance Band or Local Group.
      • A link to a web page (or Facebook page) representing the band.
      • The town and county in which the band is based.
    2. Bands who have entered the contest must upload a video of their performance on the video upload page on the USGB web site no later than midnight on the last day of September.
    3. Bands who have entered the contest (as in clause 4a) but fail to upload their entry by the closing date (as in clause 4b) shall fall out of the contest.
    4. It is the responsibility of the contestant bands to ensure that they have the requisite knowledge and ability to upload their video entry.
  5. Judging
    1. There will be three judges appointed by the committee.
    2. In each category of entry (Performance Band and Local Group), judging will be carried out in two stages:-
      • Shortlisting. Each judge will view all the submitted videos and make his/her shortlist of 6 videos to go forward for final judging. The lists of selected videos will then be merged and duplicates removed to make the final shortlist.
      • Final. Each judge will view the videos in the final shortlist and award up to ten points to each video in each of the categories of "Musical Choices", "Technical Ability" and "Presentation". The points allocated to each video by each judge will then be amalgamated to reach a total number of points for each video.
    3. In each category of entry, the band that produced the video with the highest number of points in the final stage of judging will be declared the winner and the bands that produced the videos with the next two highest number of points will be declared runners up.
    4. Any attempt by any person to influence the judges in favour of, or against, any contestant band will result in the disqualification of the band associated with that person.
  6. Disputes
    1. In the event of any dispute related to the contest, the committee of the Society shall be the sole arbiter and decisions of the committee shall be final.
  7. Disclaimer
    1. The Society shall not in any way be responsible for any costs or other obligations incurred by any band, person or other body involved in this contest, whether such costs are incurred in preparation of an entry to the contest, or by error or ommission by any party, or by any other means.