The Voice Festival UK (VF-UK) is the only UK-wide festival which celebrates the art of unaccompanied singing.
The Festival's central purpose is to increase the awareness and popularity of the a cappella art form in the UK, and to support the development of the existing UK a cappella scene, by recruiting and encouraging new participants, developing new audiences, supporting and educating existing participants and building UK A Cappella Communities.
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Founded in 2008, the Voice Festival UK comprises a series of workshops, masterclasses, concerts, competitions and networking events open to school and university students, as well as community singers. The programme of events takes place across the year, including an annual Festival in February and March each year.
From 2009 to 2010, there were three regional rounds of the Festival, held in Oxford, Cambridge and St Andrews. In 2011, two new regional rounds were added in London and Birmingham due to the increasing popularity of the event.
On three occasions, the winners of the annual university competition have been invited to perform at the ICCA final in New York. In 2009, Out of the Blue came second in the finals, meaning they were officially the second-best university group in the world.[1] The 2010 winners, The Oxford Gargoyles, were unable to compete in the final in New York due to the University of Oxford's exam timetable.[2]
| Year | Cambridge Regional | Oxford Regional | St Andrews Regional | Birmingham Regional | London Regional | Overall Winner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Cadenza, The Oxford Alternotives | Out of the Blue, The Oxford Belles | The Other Guys, The Alleycats | Not applicable | Not applicable | Out of the Blue[3] |
| 2010 | Cadenza, The Fitz Sirens | Out of the Blue, The Oxford Gargoyles | The Alleycats, The Accidentals | Not applicable | Not applicable | The Oxford Gargoyles |
| 2011 | Cadenza | Out of the Blue | The Accidentals | Augmented Seven | All The King's Men | Cadenza[4] |