Most youth arts festivals sort competitors one way: by age, then by ability. A Mòd — the Scottish Gaelic festival of Gaelic song, instrumental music, drama and literature — sorts them two different ways depending which half of the syllabus a competitor is in, and getting that split wrong is the single most common setup mistake a committee makes. This guide explains how a Mòd actually structures its competitors and its competitions, and what a committee running one needs in place before entries open — useful groundwork whether you are searching for Mòd competition software or organising the syllabus by hand.

Junior competitors are grouped by school class, not age in years

Under the event’s own published syllabus, the Junior section is not divided into neat two-year age bands. It follows school class: P1–P3, P4–P5 and P6–P7 at primary level, then a distinct 11–12 (Secondary) group, followed by 13–15 and 16–18. Age is fixed on a single date — 1 October — so a competitor’s group for the whole season is settled before the first heat, not recalculated at every event they enter.

Junior group	Roughly
P1–P3	Ages 5–8, early primary
P4–P5	Ages 8–10, middle primary
P6–P7	Ages 10–12, upper primary
11–12 (Secondary)	First years of secondary school
13–15 Years	Junior secondary
16–18 Years	Senior secondary

In eTalenter this is one pass through Age Groups Setup: six groups, each with its age range and the same cut-off date. Every entrant is then classified automatically the moment their date of birth is recorded, instead of a volunteer cross-checking a printed class list against a stage running order.

Senior is not an age group at all — it’s a category

This is the structural surprise for anyone arriving from a school arts festival, where “Senior” usually just means the oldest age band. At Senior level the syllabus stops using age altogether and splits competitors by category instead: Ladies, Men, Mixed and Open. An 18-year-old and a 70-year-old singer can be competing in the same Senior Ladies event, on the same adjudication sheet, because the syllabus never asked their age past the Junior/Senior boundary.

For a scoring system this matters because “Senior” cannot be built as one more age band above 16–18 — it has to be modelled as four separate open-ended groups, gender-restricted for two of them. In eTalenter that means four Senior rows in Age Groups Setup (each simply 18 and up), with the Ladies/Men/Mixed/Open distinction carried at the competition-assignment stage rather than the age-group stage. Get this the wrong way round and every Senior report either merges categories that must stay separate or fragments a category that should be one field.

The competitions on the syllabus

Gaelic-language items — the singing, storytelling, poetry and drama competitions — are entered and adjudicated in Scottish Gaelic. Instrumental and craft items are language-neutral, open to any competitor regardless of Gaelic fluency. Both individual and team competitions run at every group.

Competition	Entered as	Language
Solo Singing	Individual	Scottish Gaelic
Traditional Singing	Individual	Scottish Gaelic
Puirt-a-Beul	Individual	Scottish Gaelic
Waulking Song	Team	Scottish Gaelic
Action Song	Team	Scottish Gaelic
Precenting a Psalm	Individual	Scottish Gaelic
Duet Singing	Team	Scottish Gaelic
Choral Singing	Team	Scottish Gaelic
Storytelling	Individual	Scottish Gaelic
Poetry	Individual	Scottish Gaelic
Drama	Team	Scottish Gaelic
Piping	Individual	Any/NA
Bagpipes	Individual	Any/NA
Chanter	Individual	Any/NA
Fiddle	Individual	Any/NA
Accordion	Individual	Any/NA
Melodeon	Individual	Any/NA
Clarsach	Individual	Any/NA
Highland Dancing	Individual	Any/NA
Cogadh nan Comhlan (Battle of the Bands)	Team	Any/NA
Art	Individual	Any/NA

Twenty-one competitions across ten age/category groups is well over a hundred distinct cells once every competition is assigned to every group it runs in — before a single entry arrives. That is the same arithmetic problem every multi-group festival hits: define the competitions once, define the groups once, and let Assign Competitions to Groups generate the full matrix, with participant type, fee, time limit and score ceiling set per cell rather than re-typed for every group.

Adjudication: no published marking scheme, and the decision is final

Where many arts festivals publish a percentage rubric and grade bands, the Mòd’s own rules do not. Adjudicators issue an adjudication sheet to each entrant, and the rules state plainly that the adjudicator’s decision is final — there is no published formula converting a performance into a mark, and no A/B/C grade band shipped with the syllabus for a scoring system to reproduce.

What the syllabus does carry is a scoring format: most stage competitions are rated out of 10, and the Art competition is marked on a points scale. Prizes are not grade letters but named awards — a Gold Medal, a Traditional Gold Medal, a Silver Pendant and others by competition, with “First prizewinner” the term used on results sheets and trophies. A committee building a Mòd in a scoring tool should configure ratings and named prize tiers rather than trying to force a percentage-grade model the event doesn’t use. eTalenter’s Scoring Setup supports both a numeric rating scale and named award tiers, and each adjudicator scores independently on their own device — useful background in our judge scoring and tabulation guide, and on the criteria adjudicators typically weigh in our music competition adjudication article — though for any specific Mòd the current year’s own syllabus and rules are the only authority.

Setting a Mòd up in eTalenter

1. Age Groups Setup — the six Junior school-class groups plus the four Senior categories (Ladies, Men, Mixed, Open), all with the 1 October cut-off recorded once.
2. Event Levels — a local Mòd run by one committee needs a single level; a provincial or national structure feeding qualifiers upward builds a level per stage, the same shape as any promotion-based festival.
3. Competition Items — the Gaelic-language and instrumental/craft items above, each tagged with its scoring format (rating out of 10, or marks for Art).
4. Assign Competitions to Groups — generate the full matrix, restricting Senior entries to their category and leaving instrumental and craft items open regardless of Gaelic ability.
5. Scoring Setup — a rating scale for stage items, marks for Art, and named prize tiers (Gold Medal, Traditional Gold Medal, Silver Pendant, First prizewinner) rather than percentage grade bands.
6. Registration — a public entry form, with team rosters built for Waulking Song, Duet Singing, Choral Singing, Drama and the Battle of the Bands.
7. Draw, call sheets and adjudication — competitor numbers and stage order, then independent adjudicator scoring per the judging panel.
8. Results and publishing — publish results online by competition and group, with prizewinners named rather than graded.

The same platform runs a feis, a fleadh cheoil and an eisteddfod — three different competitive-arts structures, three different age or category models, one scoring engine underneath.

Frequently asked questions

What are the age groups at a Mòd?

Junior competitors are grouped by school class — P1–P3, P4–P5, P6–P7, 11–12 (Secondary), 13–15 and 16–18 — with age fixed on 1 October. Senior competitors are not grouped by age at all; they are split into Ladies, Men, Mixed and Open categories.

Is there a marking scheme or grade bands at a Mòd?

No published marking scheme exists. Adjudicators issue an adjudication sheet to each entrant and their decision is final. Most stage competitions are rated out of 10; prizes are named tiers — such as a Gold Medal or Silver Pendant — rather than letter grades.

Are Battle of the Bands and Art genuine Mòd competitions?

Yes. Cogadh nan Comhlan (Battle of the Bands) and Art both appear as separately numbered competitions in the current syllabus, alongside the vocal and instrumental programme — not informal side events.

Running a Mòd, or any Gaelic or Celtic arts competition?

If your committee is juggling school-class Junior groups, category-based Senior sections, Gaelic-language items alongside instrumental and craft competitions, and independent adjudicator sheets — eTalenter sets the whole syllabus up as one scoring system instead of a stack of spreadsheets. Talk to us on WhatsApp or email support@etalenter.com.

The age-group structure, the Senior category split, the Battle of the Bands and Art competitions, and the absence of a published marking scheme in this article are drawn from the Mòd’s own published Junior and Senior syllabus and rules. Rules are revised annually; always work from the current year’s syllabus for your own event, and note that the governing Gaelic arts society, not eTalenter, sets and owns those rules.