XIII- International Choir Festival “Music & Sea” 16-21 September 2025
Paralia, Greece
– CONDITIONS – PROGRAMME – APPLICATION COMPETITION – APPLICATION NONCOMPETITION
XIII- International Choir Festival “Music & Sea”
16 – 21, September 2025
Paralia, Greece
About the festival The International choir festival “Music & Sea” takes place annually in the middle of September in the beautiful village of Paralia, Greece. Paralia is a touristic seaside village situated on the west coast of the Thermaic Gulf and in the shadow of Olympus. The Festival has two parts: competitive and non-competitive. However, the character and the main concept of both parts is joining music, vacation, friendship, and fun. The idea of the Festival is to bring the music closer to the people and to present the music on the streets and the squares of Paralia, Olympic Beach, and Katerini. All choir ensembles, regardless of the members’ gender and age can apply for participation at the Festival. In the past years, more than a hundred choral ensembles from Finland, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Russia, Belarus, Turkey, Slovenia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Lebanon, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bosnia, Croatia… were part of the festival programs. In the competitive part, members of the jury commissions were: Gunnar Eriksson-Sweden, Gabriela Teszh-Hungary, Jean-Pierre Van Averment-Belgium, Theodora Pavlovich-Bulgaria, Sasho Tatarchevski-North Macedonia, Vladimir Opacic-Serbia, Irina Bogdanovic-Poland…
GENERAL CONDITIONS
All choir ensembles may join one part of the Festival: Competitive or Non-competitive.
COMPETITIVE PART:
REGISTRATION
All choirs’ ensembles may take part in one of the next categories:
- Children choirs – members’ age of maximum 16 years
- Youth choirs – members’ age of maximum 28 years
- Male or female choirs – no age limit
- Mixed choirs – no age limit
- Vocal groups
- Folk music – for all categories of choirs
The program of the choir ensemble is free of choice. Duration of performance shall not exceed 15 minutes on stage. The choirs shall be accompanied only by a piano.
The competition will be graded by an international jury consisted of three to five members.
The best choir ensembles from each category will take part in competition for the Grand Prix of the Festival. All choirs will received diploma for the active participation on the festival.
The following application documents must be provided latest by the closing date 30.07.2025:
- Fully completed application forms, which can be obtained from the web site magculture.mk;
- Short biography of the choir ensemble in a digital form;
- Photo of the choir ensemble, digitally, in a form suitable for reproduction;
- The name of composers and the title of compositions that will be performed; (the deadline for providing is end of August)
- Link of audio or video performance (You tube, Facebook, etc.) of the choir ensemble or CD with choir performance;
- Proof of bank transfer covering the application fee.
The Organizer is obliged to inform by e-mail the choir ensembles whether they are accepted to participate in the Competitive part of the Festival not later than 7 days after application.
APPLICATION FEE:
The application fee for the participation in the Competitive part of the Festival is 200 euro per choir. One half of this fee (100 euro) shall be considered as part of the total accommodation costs. The application fee must be paid in full to the bank account of “MAG-culture & experience” given below and is due immediately on registration. Any banking costs that may arise in connection to application fee transfer and payment must be borne by the applicant. If a choir ensemble cancels its participation at the Festival on its own accord, it shall not be entitled to a refund of the application fee. The choir ensemble shall be entitled to a refund only in case the Organizer decides not to include the choir ensemble in the competition part of the Festival.
NON- COMPETITIVE PART:
REGISTRATION
All choir ensembles, regardless of the members’ gender and age can apply for participation at the Non-competitive part of the Festival.
The program of the choir ensemble is free of choice without limit of the instruments that may accompany the choir ensemble. The duration of performance shall not exceed 15-20 minutes per performance. The choir ensembles in the non-competitive part may have two performances during the Festival.
The following application documents must be provided latest by the closing date 30.07.2025:
- Fully completed application forms, which can be obtained from the web site magculture.mk;
- Short biography of the choir ensemble in a digital form;
- Photo of the choir ensemble, digitally, in a form suitable for reproduction;
- Proof of bank transfer covering the application fee.
APPLICATION FEE:
The application fee for the participation in the Non-Competitive part of the Festival is 200 euro, per choir for each category. One half of this fee (100 euro) shall be considered as part of the total accommodation costs. The application fee must be paid in full to the bank account of “MAG-culture & experience” given below and is due immediately on registration. Any banking costs that may arise in connection to application fee transfer and payment must be borne by the applicant. If a choir ensemble cancels its participation at the Festival on its own accord, it shall not be entitled to a refund of the application fee.
The bank details for registration in the both parts of the Festival are as follows:
Account holder: MAG-culture & experience – Skopje
Address: bul. Jane Sandanski 11-3/19, 1000 Skopje, North Macedonia
Name of bank: Komercijalna Banka AD Skopje
IBAN code: MK 07300701002244935 Bank Account #: 0270100224493
Routing # (Swift code): KOBSMK2X Tax number 4030000382613
ACCOMMODATION
Accommodation shall be organized only by the Organizer.
The participants shall be accommodated in hotels and apartments in Paralia and Olympic Beach. The participants will be placed in rooms and apartments with 3, 4 or 5 beds; breakfast and dinner in a restaurant is included. Price is 160 euro in total per person for 5 nights.
For accommodation in double room, breakfast and dinner included, the price is 195 euro’s per person. Each rooms has private bathroom, TV, Wi-Fi, AC.
There shall be no accommodation in single room.
The touristic tax, 1,50 euro per room per day, is not included in the price and you need to pay separately.
Every 25 persons in group is free of charge
The total costs for the accommodation and touristic tax must be paid in cash to our cashier on the day of arrival on the Festival, before check-in and entry in the rooms.
If you have any change in the total number of participants, the Organizer needs information at least 10 days before the arrival.
The costs for accommodation for the actual number of participants must be borne by the choir ensemble. In case the ensemble has less participants than the registered number and information for such decreased number is not provided to the Organizer at least 10 days before the arrival, the choir ensemble must pay the costs for the registered number of participants
Travel expenses
The transport to and from the Festival has to be organized and paid by the ensembles themselves. Travel expenses are borne by the participating ensembles themselves.
Languages of Correspondence:
We would like to ask you for your understanding that only the English versions of documents such as announcements, offers, acceptance of offers and correspondence shall be considered as legally binding.
Contact of Organiser:
For the organisation of the Festival and for your application, please contact only the address:
MAG-culture&experience-Skopje &Wave travel-Paralia
e-mail: [email protected] ; [email protected];
Mobile phone: +38970227556; +38970277853; +306978852327
This announcement is available on: www.magculture.mk;
Follow us on: facebook.com/magculture.mk or musicandseafestivals
– CONDITIONS – PROGRAMME – APPLICATION COMPETITION – APPLICATION NONCOMPETITION
