HUNDREDS of children performed as Guernsey’s Festival of Dance got under way yesterday. The four-day event will see more than 1,000 from the age of three perform various styles.

Started in 1951, the festival has run biennially since the early 1970s and co-organiser Hazel Rowe said this year’s would be the biggest yet.

‘I’m very much looking forward to it. It is always fantastic,’ she said.

‘Hopefully the standard will be very good, like it always is, and everyone involved will have a good time. We have a very friendly atmosphere and we really hope all the children enjoy it because that’s what it’s all about. We want them to have fun and learn from it.’

This year’s adjudicator is Madeleine Shea from England and it is the first time she has judged the festival. She said she would be giving the performers constructive criticism. ‘I hope they all enjoy performing and I hope in my feedback I say what all their teachers have been telling them for months. Then they might listen, because sometimes students struggle to listen to their teacher but change once an adjudicator says the same thing.

‘But it is supposed to be about fun. If you win, then great, but if not, it doesn’t matter. Dance is all about opinions.’

Parents and grandparents packed the theatre at Beau Sejour for the first session to support their loved ones and there were a few nerves before the big opening. Cora Wakeford, 67, was watching her granddaughter and said: ‘I’m very excited.

‘It’s a big ordeal for the children and a big stage. I hope they do well.

‘It’s lovely to be able to come and support them. My granddaughter is a little

nervous because she wants to do well, but she is very excited as well.’