Manx Music Festival

10/05/2026

It’s been a whole week since the 134th Manx Music Speech and Dance Festival finished!

It was another eight days of amazing classes with people, young and not so young, competing in singing, spoken word, dancing and instrumental classes. Yet again our visiting adjudicators complimented us on our Festival, from the organisation to the programme, our wonderful stewards and the amazing venues. But one thing that stands out every year is how blown away they all are by the range and breadth of talent on the island.

A comment from one of our visiting adjudicators this year was how friendly, inclusive, and supportive our Festival is and how this is very rare in festivals such as ours; how much everyone taking part, especially our young people, encouraged each other and celebrated everyone’s successes.

The pinnacle of every Festival is our Finals night on the Friday evening with the Sheffield Plate, the Vocal Duet Final and of course, the Cleveland Medal Test. We also held the Pat Corrin Spoken Word final on the second Saturday evening.

This year Jane Corkill was our amazing Cleveland Medal winner, competing against six other outstanding singers. Jane impressed the adjudicator and the audience with her performances of pieces written and composed by Handel and Sculthorpe. Jane has been a long-time supporter and performer across a number of our vocal classes, and winning the Cleveland is a testament to her hard work and dedication. Jane is also a singing teacher on-island and enters her students into classes at our Festival too.

Our amazing winners are:

Cleveland Medal Test winner – Jane Corkill
Vocal Duet winners of the Billown Rose Bowl - Simon Fletcher and Lorcan O’Mahony
Junior Vocal Solo winner of the Sheffield Plate - Austin Pegg
Spoken Word winner of the Pat Corrin Memorial Trophy - Ethan Gonsalves

Pictured below is Cleveland Medal Test winner Jane Corkill, pictured with His Excellancy, the Lt. Governor and adjudicator for the evening, Christopher Field.

Photo courtesy of DK Photography.

https://www.dkphotography.im/

06/05/2026

Did you leave anything behind at this year’s Manx Music Speech and Dance Festival?

The Villa collect lost property throughout the eight days and leave it on display in the hope that someone might walk past and spot their mislaid belongings.

Every year they are left with a myriad assortment of items and this year is no exception.

Mostly water bottles this year, but for hygiene purposes these cannot be left much longer than after today and will be disposed of.

Below is a photo of everything still there this morning at The Villa, waiting for their owners. If you recognise anything you need to get there asap before it’s gone for good!

05/05/2026

What can we say about dkphotographyiom?

Dave has been amazing this year with his photos and all the extra bits and pieces he did behind the scenes, including helping out with queries and running messages to us too.

A perfect fit for The Guild Family! Positivity to the max for eight full days.

See you next year!

They've asked, I've said yes.... 😁📷

I'm pleased to announce that 'The Guild' will be having me back as their official photographer for 2027.

Thanks everyone for all your amazing feedback, comments and support during this years festival, you've all blown me away with the love you've shown me, so thank you ☺.

Manx Music Festival

05/05/2026

Manx Music Festival 2026 Results
Results for this year's festival will be available on our website later this week. Due to a few issues with some results not being transposed from adjudicator sheets to our official programmes we will only be indicating who won a class and who came second. This is to ensure we are not uploading inaccurate or incomplete results for anyone. We are looking at a more robust method for recording results for next year and beyond. We appreciate that the results maybe the only way for some people to keep track of classes at the Festival and we can only apologise for the issues we've had this year with the website itself and with the publishing of the results.

05/05/2026

Thank you to everyone who joined us for the 2026 Manx Music Festival! All of our wonderful performers across all our classes were amazing. We hope you'll enter again in 2027 and join us for another eight days or dancing, singing, drama and and amazing music.
If you want to get involved, but don't feel that you can get up on stage yourself we are always looking for volunteers to help steward or prepare our trophies amongst other things. Email or message us for more details.
Look out for the 2027 syllabus later this year.

Dates for 2027: 24th April to 1st May inclusive.

31/01/2026

Your entry isn’t confirmed until you CHECKOUT your basket
Don’t get caught out and miss the deadline!

31/01/2026

Entries close today at midnight!
Don’t leave it till the last minute to try and get your entry in…😳

28/01/2026

IMPORTANT NOTICE

The closing date for entries is this Saturday, 31st January.

You have until midnight on the 31st to submit your entries online (use the Enter Now option on our website to access our online system) or via hard copy to our Entries Secretary - address details in the syllabus.

DON'T MISS THE DEADLINE - NO LATE ENTRIES WILL BE ACCEPTED.

13/01/2026

MICHAEL CORKHILL - RIP

A Royal Hall filled with the magnificence of his voice, a Villa Marina alive with joy through his performances, and an Island warmed by love through his very presence…

Michael Corkhill.

Such a special man of remarkable talent, who we will all deeply mourn, following his sad passing yesterday.

Michael Corkhill was not only a beloved part of our ‘Guild Family’, but an integral part of the Manx arts (music and theatrical) scene, as well as being a devoted family man. We send our deepest condolences to his wife Carole, daughter Victoria, son Peter, grandchildren, siblings, relatives and friends.

The Corkhill family is an exceptional part of our Manx community, and we surround them now with our thoughts — thoughts that will be relived at every future Guild, where Michael’s chipper personality and broad smile will be forever missed.

Tenor Michael appeared in a variety of Guild Classes over the years as soloist and in ensembles, with great success, including regularly qualifying for the Cleveland Medal Final.

In 2010, he and his daughter Victoria competed head-to-head in the Cleveland Final — a moment of rare pride and memory, where friendly rivalry met deep familial support.

Michael had the ability to balance both serious classical singing with the more light-hearted and, no matter what the genre, was lauded and applauded when he strode out on stage. He was also renowned for being the cheerleader for everyone else competing.

Well-known Guild singers Olivia Landels and Mandy Griffin both speak fondly of Michael’s rendition of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Take a Pair of Sparkling Eyes” in the Songs from the Musicals Class when The Guild was held at The Gaiety Theatre. Not only did he win the class, but the adjudicator said: “you wouldn’t hear a better D♭ anywhere”!

Mandy, who described Michael as “a legend and an inspiration”, remembered: “it brought the house down”. We also understand that fellow competitor, Geoff Collier, had a fun bet with him that he wouldn’t reach that top note. We are happy to report that Geoff lost the bet, but said Michael wouldn’t accept the money as he was “a lovely bloke, always up for a laugh and a real gentleman”.

Many other people’s abiding memory of Michael at The Guild is when he joined up with his brother, Gary, and Simon Fletcher in the Ladies’ Voice Trio to sing “Three Little Maids”! Family friend, Olivia said: “It was hilarious. The adjudicator decided it was so good that (despite the obvious) they simply had to win!”

Olivia also spoke of Michael’s impressive tenor aria, Donizetti’s “Ah mes Amis” with its 9 top Cs! This would be a challenge for any professional tenor – but not for Michael who effortlessly hit them one after the other, again earning high praise from Guild adjudicators. Official accompanist, Judith Christian, described playing for Michael as her “highlight of Guild week” due to his passion for his chosen pieces.

Michael was just a natural performer. Although he was a Mario Lanza fan and his go-to entertainment (and karaoke!) song was “Nessun Dorma”, for me it will always be “Maria” from West Side Story that I’ll associate with him. I simply cannot believe I will never hear him sing it again but will always give Michael a thought if it passes my ear.

Michael endured poor health for more than a decade, yet the way he continued — again and again — in the face of adversity was a true testament to his character, his bravery, and the love he gave to, and received from, his family. He never gave up.

He bore so much that we could scarcely imagine the day when he would no longer be with us.

Michael will remain one of the Festival’s most popular and cherished performers.

Please share your memories of Michael in the comments — every story, every laugh, every note sung will help us celebrate the wonderful man he was.