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EMA Youth Festival (Exton) — Youth Talent Festival for Under-18s: Dance, Music and Speech in Five-Minute Slots

EMA Youth Festival (Exton): The Exton Malayali Association's (Pennsylvania) youth talent festival for under-18s: 16 real performance items across Dance,...

e By Luke Justin October 31, 2026 4 min read

New here? Start with the basicsAge groups, competition categories and how to set up your event.

Youth Festival · Church & Community

The Exton Malayali Association’s (Pennsylvania) youth talent festival for under-18s: 16 real performance items across Dance, Music and Speech, built from EMA’s own published Event Rules and full judging rubric.

A ready-made youth festival for performers under 18: thirteen items across dance, music, recitation, storytelling and stage acts, with sixteen classes in all, a five-minute limit on almost every class and a 100-mark score for each.

This template models a one-day youth talent festival run by a community association in the United States, built from the organiser’s own printed event rules. It has a single age group, Youth, open to everyone under 18 with no minimum age printed. There are thirteen items, and because three speech items and the film-song style are split by language, they become sixteen classes. Every class is performance-based: nothing is written, drawn or submitted as an exhibit, so the whole programme can run on stage in front of a panel.

The items fall into three families. Dance has Bharatanatyam, Cinematic/Fusion/Western Dance and Group Dance. Music has Carnatic Music, Light Music, Film Song, Western Music and Instruments (String or Wind). Speech and performance has Recitation, Elocution, Story Telling, Mono Act and Fancy Dress. Group Dance is the only team class; every other class is an individual entry, and none is split by gender. Language is fixed where the rules say so: Light Music and Film Song are sung in Malayalam, Western Music in English, and Recitation, Elocution and Story Telling run as two separate competitions, one in Malayalam and one in English.

Time is tight and simple. Every class has a five-minute maximum except Fancy Dress, which has three. Only a maximum is printed, so there is no minimum and no warning bell is installed. Each class is scored out of 100 marks. The organiser’s rules page sets out a points-based rubric for every item, but the template does not copy those sub-marks; a coordinator who wants them can add each item’s own criteria in the event. No grades and no placement points are printed, so the template installs neither.

Some details belong in your own registration rules and are left out of the scoring set-up. The source quotes a member and a non-member entry fee, but fees are installed as zero so that each organiser sets their own. The audio-track deadline, who may accompany a performer, and what happens when a performance runs over time are rules for your entry form and your stage manager, not scoring settings. Dates and venue are not part of the template.

Where this event is run

Youth festivals made up of dance, music and speech items, with one open age group and short time slots, are run by community associations, cultural groups and parent organisations wherever families from the Indian diaspora gather, notably in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and the Gulf. This template comes from one United States festival, so its item list, language splits and five-minute limit describe that festival. Elsewhere, organisers usually adjust the age brackets and add a junior and a senior band, and some run each language as its own item instead of splitting one item into two classes.

United States

Key facts

Thirteen items and sixteen classes, all performance-based, for one age group open to everyone under 18 with no minimum age printed
Group Dance is the only team class; every other class is an individual entry and none is split by gender
Recitation, Elocution and Story Telling are each run twice, as a Malayalam class and an English class; Light Music and Film Song are Malayalam, Western Music is English
Five-minute maximum on every class except Fancy Dress at three minutes; no minimum time and no warning bell
Each class is scored out of 100 marks; the per-item sub-marks are not copied, so add each item’s own criteria in your event
Fees are installed as zero, and no grades or placement points are printed; audio deadlines and accompaniment rules are registration rules, not scoring settings

Age groups: 1
Competition items: 13
Competitions: 16
Grade bands: 0
Rank awards: 0

Age groups

Every candidate is placed into one of these groups by age, and competitions are run per group.

Youth

0From

–

17To

Candidates aged 0 to 17 compete in this group

Competition items

The events themselves — each with the category it belongs to and how judges score it.

Competitions by group

The full schedule matrix, sectioned by age group then category — which item runs for whom, and for how long.

Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Youth
Classical Dance
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Bharatanatyam	Individual	—	—	100	5 min
Dance
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Cinematic/Fusion/Western Dance	Individual	—	—	100	5 min
Group Dance	Team	—	—	100	5 min
Music
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Carnatic Music	Individual	—	—	100	5 min
Light Music	Individual	—	Malayalam	100	5 min
Film Song	Individual	—	Malayalam	100	5 min
Western Music	Individual	—	English	100	5 min
Instruments (String or Wind)	Individual	—	—	100	5 min
Literary
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Recitation	Individual	—	Malayalam	100	5 min
Recitation	Individual	—	English	100	5 min
Story Telling	Individual	—	Malayalam	100	5 min
Story Telling	Individual	—	English	100	5 min
Oral
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Elocution	Individual	—	Malayalam	100	5 min
Elocution	Individual	—	English	100	5 min
On Stage
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Mono Act	Individual	—	—	100	5 min
Special
Item	Type	Gender	Language	Max score	Time limit
Fancy Dress	Individual	—	—	100	3 min

Frequently asked questions

Can I change this template after installing it?

Yes — installing it creates a fully configured, live event, not a locked package. Every age group, competition item, rule and scoring setting can be edited afterwards to match exactly what your event actually needs.