Please read these terms and conditions carefully before submitting your competition entry. By entering the competition, you are indicating your agreement to be bound by these terms and conditions. You must have your parent’s or guardian’s permission to enter the Competition as a person under the age of 18.

1.1 The Promoters of this competition are the Wirral Theatre Festival

2.1 The Wirral Theatre Festival Writing Competition is a literature competition (Competition) for an original, unpublished piece of writing. The theme and location must have some connection to the Wirral peninsula.

2.2 To enter this competition, you must be in either primary, secondary or further education (pre-university).

2.3 The story must be no more than 1500 words or cover around 4 pieces of A4 paper (we recommend only 2 pieces of paper for Primary School students).

2.4 The competition will run from January 1^st 2024 until 23:59 on the 29^th February 2024. All competition entries must be received by no later than 23:59 on the closing date unless by prior arrangement. Any competition entries received after the closing date may be disqualified.

2.5 Entrants under the age of 18 years must have permission to enter the Competition from a parent or guardian. They will need to agree to these terms and conditions on behalf of the entrant on the submission form by way of a check-box. The Promoters reserve the right to confirm this permission with the parents or guardian of the entrant.

3.1 You must be the sole author of the submitted entry. You must also have been born, live or have lived, study or have studied, work or have worked in the Wirral Peninsula.

3.2 There are three age categories, 9-11 years old, 12-15 years old, 16-18 years old (Qualifying Entries). Only Qualifying Entries will be considered for this competition (e.g. proof of age or address) to the Promoters.

3.3 By entering the competition, you confirm that you are eligible to enter and that you may be required to provide proof of your eligibility.

3.4 Entries will not be accepted from members of the judging panel or from any person directly or indirectly involved in the running of the Wirral Theatre Festival. This includes members of any administration or direct members of their family or households.

3.5 The Promoters reserve the right to disqualify any entry which is deemed to fail to comply with the Competition entry criteria or contravenes these Terms and Conditions.

4.1 Individual entries must be submitted via the online entry form. Group entries can also be submitted via the online entry form, but may also be received via post, or email.

4.2 Entries must be in English, and must be original, fictional and previously unpublished work. The entry must be entirely your own work and must not have been published or accepted for publication elsewhere.

4.3 Entries that have won or entered into other literary competitions are not eligible.

4.4 Entries must not infringe the rights of third parties including copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity, trade secrets, personal or proprietary rights.

4.5 There is a limit of one entry to the Competition per person. If you submit more than one entry, only your first submission will qualify. Any entries received after this may not be considered.

4.6 Joint submissions are permitted, but all authors must be eligible to enter the Competition and must agree to the submission being entered and to these Terms and Conditions. This means that joint submissions must have been created by the authors together.

4.7 By submitting your entry, you confirm that:

4.7.1 You are eligible to enter the Competition and that you will be able to provide proof of eligibility to enter the Competition if requested by the Promoters.

4.7.2 Your entry has not been published before.

4.7.3 Your entry is entirely your own original work and no part of it has been taken from any other source material.

4.7.4 Your entry is a work of fiction and that you have not used personal details of any living persons in the work (person’s of the past are permitted).

4.7.5 Your entry does not contain any unsuitable material (this includes but is not limited to anything that could be considered unlawful, offensive, private or other unsuitable material).

4.7.6 Nothing in your entry constitutes an infringement of copyright or other intellectual property right, or breaches the rights of any third party.

4.7.7 You have not and will not enter into any agreement or arrangement that affects the Promoter’s ability to make full use of clause 8 of these Terms and Conditions.

4.7.8 You (or in the case of your guardian/parent if the entrant is below the age of 18) will indemnify and hold the Promoters harmless against all liabilities, costs, expenses, damages and losses suffered or incurred by the Promoters arising out of your breach of these Terms and Conditions.

4.8 Entries which fail to comply with these Terms and Conditions will not be considered.

4.9 If the Promoters have reason to believe that an entrant has acted contrary to these Terms and Conditions, the Promoters may, at their sole discretion, disqualify their entry form the Competition.

5.1 Entry to the competition is free.

5.2 To the enter the competition, entrants must complete the online entry form on the website (www.wirraltheatrefestival.co.uk) and attach their competition entry to the form as a separate file (PDF, DOC or JPEG)

5.3 If an entrant is under the age of 18 when submitting their entry to the Competition, their parent or guardian must tick the consent box on the form consenting to your entry into the competition and acceptance of these Terms and Conditions.

5.4 Entrants cannot amend their work after it has been submitted to the Competition.

5.5 Entrants cannot amend their work after it has been submitted to the Competition.

5.6 Entrants should keep a copy of their work as the Promoters cannot guarantee that originals can be returned.

5.7 Late, ineligible, incomplete or corrupt entries will not be accepted.

5.8 The Promoters will not accept any responsibility whatsoever for any Competition entries that are lost, mislaid or damaged (including but not limited to: equipment failure, technical malfunction, systems, satellite, network, server, computer hardware or software failure of any kind).

5.9 The Promoters will not accept proof of transmission as proof of receipt of entry to the Competition.

5.10 Enquiries about the Competition should be directed to:

Robert Southworth or Craig Ash McKenna, Wirral Theatre Company

Email: info@wirraltheatrefestival.co.uk

6.1 Your entry will be judged by a panel of judges. This panel will comprise of professionals from various writing fields.

6.2 Winning stories will be selected by the judges in accordance with these terms and conditions based on the following criteria: originality, plot, characterisation, relevance to theme, use of language, suitability to be converted into a stage play and overall enjoyment.

6.3 Winners will be announced at an Awards Ceremony in Summer 2024 (Announcement Date). The date, time and location of the Awards Ceremony will be notified in advance.

6.4 Winners will also be announced on the Promoters’ websites and social media accounts and all entrants to the Competition consent to the use by the Promoters of their name and age to announce winners of the Competition and to identify entrants in any publication of an entry in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.

6.5 The judges’ decision is final, and no correspondence or discussion will be entered into concerning their decision. The Promoters, unfortunately, will not give advice or feedback on entries that are unsuccessful.

7.1 All winners will have their stories turned into short plays of between 15-60 minutes in length. These will be adapted by our own in-house team.

7.2 All winners will be invited with a select number of friends (numbers to be confirmed before the Summer) to a showing of their work during the festival.

7.3 Where a joint submission wins, the number of friends allowed to accompany them to a showing of their work will be split between them equally.

7.4 The Promoters reserve the right not to declare a winner and to withhold a prize if insufficient entries are received or if in the judges’ opinion, entries do not reach the required standard.

7.5 Prizes are non-negotiable and non-transferable. The Promoters will not be liable for any loss or damage arising out of a winner’s enjoyment of the prize.

7.6 Winners may be required to provide proof of their eligibility to enter the Competition before receiving their prize.

7.7 The Promoters are not responsible for contacting or forwarding prizes to entrants who provide unclear or incomplete contact information.

7.8 The Promoter will make all reasonable efforts to contact the winners. If a winner cannot be contacted within 30 days of the Announcement Date, the Promoter reserves the right to offer the prize to the next placed entry selected from the shortlisted entries.

7.9 The Promoters do not accept any responsibility if you are unable to take up the prize.

7.10 Prize winners may be required to take part in related publicity and such participation is a condition of accepting a prize. For the avoidance of doubt, in the case of a joint submission, all authors must take part in related publicity.

8.1 Subject to clause 8.2 below, each entrant retains the copyright in his or her entry. However, each entrant grants (or in the case of entrants below the age of 18, their parent or guardian grants) to the Wirral Theatre Festival an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence for the full period of copyright in their entry including all periods of renewal, extension and revival of the copyright a right to publish, edit, use, reproduce, distribute, sell, exhibit, licence for publication and otherwise make full use of the entry in whole, partial or adapted form in all current and future works from the Wirral Theatre Festival, without limitation and irrespective of its form or media (including those yet to be envisaged), in the English language and in any translations of the Work (Licence).

8.2 You agree (or in the case of entrants below the age of 18, their parent or guardian agrees) not to exercise the Rights in such a way as to adversely affect the Wirral Theatre Festivals’ ability to take the full benefit of the Licence.

8.3 Wirral Theatre Festival is under no obligation to publish an entry in the current of future editions of any works.

8.4 By submitting your entry you agree (or in the case of entrants below the age of 18, their parent or guardian agrees) that Wirral Theatre Festival may (at its sole discretion) revise, edit, adapt, abridge or translate the entry for the purposes listed in clause 8.1 above.

8.5 Wirral Theatre Festival reserves the right (but is not obliged) to publish all entries (including parts of an entry or entries) in addition to the winning entries in the current or future editions of any works. You acknowledge and accept that publication does not mean that you have won a prize.

9.1 Any personal data received by the Promoters will be processed in order to administer the Competition and to contact any entrants in accordance with Data Protection Legislation.

10.1 The Promoters reserve the right to disqualify any entry (including any winning entry) which breaches any of these Terms and Conditions.

10.2 The Promoters reserve the right to amend these Terms and Conditions or suspend or cancel the Competition at any stage at their discretion or if circumstances arise outside of their control. Any changes will be published on the Promoters’ websites and will take immediate effect on publication.

10.3 To the extent permissible under applicable law, neither the Promoters nor the judges shall be liable to any entrant or to any winner for any loss or damage howsoever caused (whether in contract, tort (including without limitation, negligence, statutory duty or otherwise)) arising out of or in connection with the Competition.

10.4 These Terms and Conditions and any dispute arising out of them are governed by English law and any disputes will be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England.

10.5 The Competition is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with any social network.