The music sections have started with dance, speech and drama, choral speech and mature age sections to come.

Committee president Christopher Jackson said the beauty of the eisteddfod was that performers did their best work and grew from the experience, getting expert and professional feedback about their performances.

However, this year, he was disappointed numbers in music sections were not as high as he had expected.

“The numbers of entries in music have not been that good, which is a bit disappointing,” he said.

“The choral speech has picked up now, but dancing is good, the band and string entries are better in terms of numbers than piano and vocals.

“Dance is always very strong and speech and drama numbers are good.” 

Although Tamworth has not brought huge numbers to the music sections, the performers have made up for it with the high quality of entries.

“The adjudicators have been very impressed,” Mr Jackson said.

“I’ve also been quite impressed with Dr Stephen Watson – he is very supportive of the children and gave them a lot of feedback. Because of the smaller numbers, he’s been able to stand up and give them feedback straight away.” 

Mr Jackson said he would love to see more young people involved because of the feedback they receive and the performance experience it gives them.

He said he remembered being involved in the event 36 years ago playing piano, singing and reciting poetry.

Mr Jackson said plenty of people had turned out to support the performers with sections held at Tamworth Regional Conservatorium, Tamworth Town Hall, Wests’ Diggers and Tamworth Community Centre.