大象传媒

As in previous years, the 大象传媒 Radio 2 Folk Awards 2017 are to be produced and organised by Smooth Operations, an independent producer commissioned by 大象传媒.

The voting, nomination and award process will be managed jointly by the 大象传媒 and Smooth Operations in line with the 大象传媒's Editorial Guidelines on Awards.

The Awards year (or qualifying period) runs from 1st January 2016 to 31st December 2016. The Awards are made in April 2017.

2017 Awards Categories and Eligibility Criteria

Categories 1, 2, 3, 5 & 6 are awarded by the main Voting Panel.
Category 4 is awarded by the Voting Panel in round one and via a public vote in round two.
Categories 7 & 8; in Round One, a shortlist of 8 tracks per category are selected by the Voting Panel and four nominees are chosen from these shortlists by a specialist Track Panel convened by the Folk Awards Committee. In Round Two, the Track Panel meet by phone conference to decide the winner in each category.

1. FOLK SINGER OF THE YEAR - The artist making the greatest impact during the past year through excellence in performance, recorded releases or a special event.

2. BEST DUO - The award for the duo making the greatest impact during the past year through excellence in performance, recorded releases or a special event.

3. BEST GROUP - The award for the group making the greatest impact during the past year through excellence in performance, recorded releases or a special event.

4. BEST ALBUM - The best folk or roots album released during the qualifying period. (reissues or compilations do not qualify).

5. HORIZON AWARD - The best emerging artist or artists on the folk scene during the Awards year; any acts who have debuted, made a significant increase in their popularity or a special impression during the qualifying period.

6. MUSICIAN OF THE YEAR - This person can be part of a band, a solo artist or session musician who can be considered to be the most significant instrumentalist of the Awards year.

7. BEST ORIGINAL TRACK- The best non-traditional song or instrumental of the Awards year. This can be a new song or instrumental or, if it is more than one year old, needs to have had a significant new performance or interpretation to qualify in this category.

8. BEST TRADITIONAL TRACK - The best performance of any traditional song or tune released during the Awards year. This is a category designed to recognise the work of people recording traditional material. It must be a new recording of a traditional song or tune, from any tradition.

Categories 9 to 12 are awarded by the Folk Awards Committee; there will not necessarily be an award in every category:

9. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD - This award is given to a person or group whom the panel deem to have made an enormous and lasting contribution to folk music over a sustained number of years.

10. GOOD TRADITION AWARD - Awarded to a person, group or organisation that the panel concludes have contributed to the preservation, dissemination and continuance or progression of traditional music over a number of years

11. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR CONTRIBUTION TO SONGWRITING - Bestowed on a person/ persons whom the panel consider to have produced a significant volume of work in the field of song-writing that has been adopted by the folk community.

12. ROOTS AWARD - Given to a person or Group whom the panel consider to have made an outstanding contribution to Folk Music from a grass roots level upwards.

13. 大象传媒 RADIO 2 YOUNG FOLK AWARD - Separate process – see note below. **

Awards procedures

The main Voting Panel is made up of 150 people. Panellists must have a professional or semi-professional connection to folk music and be reliably exposed to a wide range of folk, roots and acoustic music. This may include journalists, broadcasters, promoters, publishers, musicians, festival and folk club organisers, members of arts organisations, academics, publicists, agents and label and distribution company personnel. Membership of the Voting Panel is determined by the 大象传媒 & Smooth Operations and is reviewed every three years. You can apply to be on the panel by emailing your name, position and credentials to folkawardspanel@smoothoperations.com.

The Awards for categories 1 to 6 are determined by two rounds of voting by the Panel:

Round One

The Voting Panel are asked to nominate up to 3 artists in each category. Nomination forms are sent out on 12th January 2017. The panel need to return their nominations by Tuesday 31st January 2017 to Smooth Operations. To avoid any possible conflict of interest, panellists are not permitted to nominate artists in whom they have a close professional interest. Managers, agents, publicists or record company members of staff are not allowed to vote for any artist(s) that they represent. The returned nominations are collated and the top four receiving the most nominations in each category are then listed on the voting form in Round Two.

Round Two

Each Panellist can vote for one nomination in each category. Panellists are not permitted to vote for artists in whom they have a close professional interest. Voting forms are sent out on Thursday 9th February 2017 following the announcement of the nominations on the The Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe and are to be returned by Tuesday 28th February 2017. These votes are counted by the 大象传媒 & Smooth Operations and the nominee with the most votes in each category is declared the recipient of the award. Winners are announced on the night of the Folk Awards. Spoiled voting papers (e.g. papers where more than one vote has been cast or where the mark is not clear) will be discounted. Only the winner with the most votes is recognised, and no other results are released (i.e. there are no runners up). In the event of a tie - that is more than one artist receiving the same highest number of votes - then the award will be made jointly to all the artists. The top 5 ‘Best Albums’ nominated in Round One will be put to a public vote and not voted for by the voting panel. The vote will be run on the 大象传媒 Radio 2 website from 9th February to 16th February 2017.

The Awards for categories 7 and 8 are awarded by a specialist Track Panel

The Track Panel who will award the categories of ‘Best Original Track’ and ‘Best Traditional Track’ will be comprised of five persons who have a professional or semi-professional interest in the folk industry. The Folk Awards Committee will nominate and oversee the panel.

The Track Panel 2017 are:

• Lynette Fay – Presenter, Folk Club (大象传媒 Radio Ulster)
• Alex Gallacher – Editor-in-Chief, Folk Radio UK
• Frank Hennessy – Presenter, Celtic Heartbeat (大象传媒 Radio Wales)
• Jon Lewis – Producer, The Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe (大象传媒 Radio 2)
• Bella Hardy – Musician and songwriter

The Awards for categories 9 to 12 are determined by two rounds of voting by the Committee:-

The decision is taken at a meeting scheduled at least three months prior to the awards. The Committee members come to the meeting with a list of their own nominations for each of the awards. The Committee have an open discussion of these nominations with a view to arriving at a consensus. In the event of failure to reach a consensus, the award is decided by way of a vote. Smooth Operations will keep records of all committee meetings.

**The 大象传媒 Radio 2 Young Folk Award is determined by a separate panel of judges. A shortlist of 10 acts is selected from all the entries submitted to the Young Folk Award competition. These 10 acts are invited to a residential performance weekend known as the Young Folk Award Weekend, which culminates in a public concert from which a specialist panel of judges, comprising musicians and industry personnel, determine a winner.

The Young Folk Award judges 2017 are:

• Andy Bell – Record producer and sound engineer
• James Fagan – Musician
• Steve Heap – Director, Towersey Festival and General Secretary, Association of Festival Organisers
• Nancy Kerr - Musician
• Kellie While – Producer, 大象传媒 Radio 2 Folk Awards

The winner will be announced at the Folk Awards ceremony.

Nominated Representatives

The 大象传媒 & Smooth Operations will appoint nominated representatives who shall be responsible for monitoring the voting. They will ensure that votes are properly collected and counted and that the process is conducted in line with the rules as well as the 大象传媒's Editorial Guidelines on Awards. Nominated Representatives are not permitted to vote either as part of the Voting Panel or The Folk Awards Committee. Smooth Operations will keep and store all nomination and voting papers on behalf of the 大象传媒 for 3 years following each award ceremony.

Nominated Representatives 2017 are:

• Julian Grundy – Manager Commissioning and Scheduling, Radio 2
• Sarah Harrison – Production Assistant, Smooth Operations

The Folk Awards Committee consists of 5 people, 2 are senior members of the Folk Awards production staff, 2 are senior members of 大象传媒 Radio 2 staff and the 1 is an independent expert.

The Folk Awards Committee 2017 are:

• John Leonard – Group Editorial Director, 7digital Creative (Chair)
• Kellie While – Head of 7digital Creative
• Al Booth – Editor Specialist Music, 大象传媒 Radio 2
• Mark Simpson – Producer, Bob Harris Show (大象传媒 Radio 2)
• Colin Irwin – Journalist and author

Voting Panel - Terms and Conditions

A copy of the ‘Panel Declaration Form’ provided to panel members must be signed and returned along with the nomination/voting form and failure to do so will render the nomination/vote void. By returning a completed nomination/voting form, panel members acknowledge that they are still eligible to be part of the Panel and that they will abide by these rules. It is requested that panellists commit to participating in both rounds of voting and any panellist who does not cast their vote in time will be replaced with another panellist in the following year.

Promotion

Nominees and Winners who wish to produce promotional material referring to themselves as such will be sent details prior to the start of Round Two on how to apply to the 大象传媒 to do so. Use of the awards name, the 大象传媒 Radio 2 logo or the 大象传媒 blocks is not a given, and shall only be granted following the completion and signing of a trademark licence provided to the Nominee/Winner by the 大象传媒. Unauthorised use of the 大象传媒 Radio 2 logo or the 大象传媒 Blocks will be treated as a breach of copyright.