The observant among you may have noticed this year's Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition logo appeared on the blog's sidebar a few weeks back, and yesterday Glastonbury Festival launched the competition.
The Emerging Talent Competition gives new acts based in the UK and Ireland the opportunity to compete for a slot on one of the main stages at the Festival and a £5,000 PRS for Music Foundation Talent Development prize in order to help fund further songwriting and performance development. Two runners-up will also be awarded a £2,500 PRS for Music Talent Development Prize.
Acts have one week to enter, from 9am on Monday 19 January until 5pm on Monday 26 January. The competition is open to all genres and entries can be submitted via the Glastonbury Festival website. Previous winners include Stornaway, The Subways and last year's winners, M+A.
Entries will go through an initial panel of 40 of UK music writers will compile a longlist of 120 acts, and once again I delighted to say that BlackPlastic.co.uk will be one of those writers judging initial entries. The longest is then shortlisted to 8 different acts by a judging panel that includes Michael and Emily Eavis, with the final winning act being decided at a live final at the Pilton Woking Men's Club in April.