You, as a nation, are invited to [size=100][size=100][size=100]MAKE A SPLASH! At the Fourth Urthvision Songfestival, hosted by Free Syllvin. As we celebrate the cultural differences between us as peoples, Free Syllvin extends a hand to all those nations that wish for closer bonds between their citizens, and asks,
“Come and join us.”
Your journey will take you to the Confederated Islands of Free Syllvin, a richly diverse land full to bursting with lush plant life and tropical species of all shapes and sizes. You will be welcomed by a nation, and by a culture steeped in the sea and the skies. Come, then, by boat or plane to the city of Usk Consarvos, the glimmering resort capital of the Folovus territory. Decked in silver and gems, this cosmopolitan center of art and enjoyment is one of the most popular travel destinations in eastern Gondwana. With eight luxury accomodations to choose from, every comfort will be fully provided to ensure your visit is truly a musically memorable event.
Join the international delegations and your fellow travellers for a special red carpet event at the Confederacy Platinum Center, the shining symbol and heart of the city, on April 1st. The Songfestival will officially open at a dinner-and-show event hosted by the Councilor on Cultural Organization, Restis Purtan. April 2nd is yours to explore the city, sample some of the most exquisite in native and foreign cuisine, take a fishing cruise into the Allas Gulf, work on your tan on some of the softest beaches on the continent, or take a sightseeing tour of the territory.
Then on April 3rd, travel downtown to the shores of the Breezeway Bay and enter the Usk Consarvos International Exhibition Center, the most ecologically-conscious convention complex in the nation. Experience the musical culture of Urths’ diverse peoples inside the state-of-the-art 7,000 person arena and explore the halls for fine restaurants, special souvenirs, and cinematic presentations. Your host will be Alensan Markovio, the Director of Presentation at Free Syllvins’ Confederated Entertainment Commission and three-time National Music Ranking #1.
April 4th will be occupied by vote tallying and preparations for the final ceremony and awards dinner, taking place in the Exhibition Centers’ Supreme Ballroom. Your nation and performers will be honored with a commemorative Cultural Flame trophy, with First Place being given a trophy made of platinum and gold, Second Place receiving a trophy of silver and onyx, Third Place being awarded a trophy of bronze and emerald, while all other entrants will be awarded trophies made of rainbow glass and polished steel. [/size]
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[font=Monaco][size=100]Prerequisites and Prizes:
All contributing nations must dispatch a diplomatic mission to Syllvan Center immediately if they do not already possess an embassy.
All contributing nations must donate 750,000 kiribs to cover their entourage expenses, as well as pay collectively for the trophies and prizes.
First Place: The nation that comes in first will host Songfestival 5, and will be awarded two First Place trophies; one for the government and one for the performers. The performer will be invited on a tour of Free Syllvin later in the year if they so choose, and will be issued a 500,000 Kirib cash prize. The winning nation will have their financial contributions to the contest fully refunded.
Second Place: The nation that comes in second will be awarded two Second Place trophies; one for the government and one for the performers. The performer will be issued a 300,000 Kirib cash prize.
Third Place: The nation that comes in second will be awarded two Third Place trophies; one for the government and one for the performers. The performer will be issued a 200,000 Kirib cash prize.
All subsequent places will receive two Commemoration trophies; one for the government and one for the performers. All performers will be issued a 50,000 Kirib cash prize. [/font][/size]
Rules and Regulations:
[spoiler]Attention:
Free Syllvin hereafter establishes the Urthvision Regulations Committee to codify and enforce a set of statutes that all Songfestivals from this point on will follow. Alterations to these statutes will be allowed to take place twice-annually at pre-scheduled conferences composed of all nations participating in membership within the URC. Participation in the Songfestival does not require membership within the URC, but member nations will be afforded preference when dealing with song order, accommodations, and commercial and broadcast rights.
Membership within the URC is dependent on an annual donation proportionate to the nations GDP but will not recede past 5 million Auroran Standard Kiribs. Those members which donate more than 50 million ASK will be afforded the status of Boardmember, being able to make administrative and organizational decisions in conjunction with other Boardmembers.
Organizational:
[ul]
[li]The voting system will have participating nations poll their citizens through the use of the television broadcast, using whatever means necessary to collect the votes of the citizens, in the format of a list of all participating nations from first to last. The exact circumstances of the point system will be dependant on the nations participating and will be decided between the URC Board and the host nation.
[li]If a nation that is not a member of the URC wins the contest, they agree on virtue of participation to abide by all rules and regulations the URC enforces and to accommodate the URC Board in planning out the next contest.
[li]All participating nations must donate an amount of Kiribs submitted by the host nation and approved by the URC Board between 500,000 and 2 million in order to pay for construction of any necessary facilities, cover expenses for their nations’ entourage, and to collectively pay for prizes and trophies.
[li]The host nation is responsible for the accomodation, transport, security, and successful performance of all participants. URC officials will be present where necessary to ensure all reasonable means are being undertaken to ensure each participating nation is treated fair and equitably.
[li]All performers are required to possess a visa and residence within the nation they represent. Citizenship is not required.
[li]Political relationships are forbidden to take precedence over the festival, as it is a celebration of culture and art. If a participant broadcaster suspends or alters their localized version of the host broadcast, they will be subject to a fine proportional to the changes made.
[li]The host nation must be able to provide the following when selecting a city:
-The chosen venue must be able to house a minimum of 6,000 persons in an arena-style location designed to be able to host concerts.
-The chosen venue must be able to provide reasonable access to restroom, medical, and concessions facilities for all persons and species, whether able bodied or disabled.
-Venues must also be provided for the opening and closing ceremonies of at least 2,000 attendees.
-The host city must have enough hotel and resort space within 2 kilometers of the venue able to accommodate upwards of 5,000 people which include national delegations and press, but also attendees and fans.
-The host city must be able to guarantee the safety and security of participants, members of delegations and guests.
-The host city must have within the city limits a hospital and police organization numbering at least 1,000 officers, robust public transport, an international airport within 10
kilometers, access to reasonable sized roadways, and be able to provide fast and direct transport from each accomodation area to the venues for performance and official ceremonies.
-The host city must provide a recommended exploration program for visitors and performers in order to showcase, promote, and expand the culture, food, industry, environment, etc. of the host city and nation.
-The host city must have a robust broadcast and satellite up-link capability in order to disseminate the contest broadcast internationally.
Musical Performance-
[li]All entered music and their associated contestants must be unique and married in the sense that the work of music is an original composition by the performer.
[li]A musician or composer cannot represent their nation two songfestivals in a row.
[li]All musical acts must be either created for this competition or be a pre-existing work of music that was not recorded prior to 1985 (Nineteen Eighty-Five.)
[li]The act must not last longer than 6:30 minutes (six and a half) and the music itself may not exceed 6 minutes (six) in length.
[li]Acts must have a vocal component unless they are intended to be performed orchestrally.
[li]All works of music must be of either popular or cultural significance to their nation of origin. The host nation and their broadcast provider will work with cultural and historical experts to determine the eligibility of each song on this parameter. Nations whose first entry are denied will have 1 chance (one) to select a more appropriate musical work.
[li]All vocal components of the musical work must be performed by a live singer. No pre-recorded vocals or lip syncing is permitted unless the vocals are part of an electronically altered component of the piece.
[li]A nation is permitted a non-mandatory one-minute video to preface their performance. The video may only contain content that references the performer and their home nation. Anything promoting tourism, the government, the military, the international or colonial presence of the nation, the current venue, commercial products, etc is forbidden. Any content that is associated with the performers’ prior musical career, or any content that is similar or identical to any music videos or promotional content for the musical work itself is forbidden. All videos will be screened prior to the event. In the case that a nations’ video is found to violate any regulations, there will be no opportunity to submit another.
[li]The chosen musical piece is not permitted to be performed by any artist professionally, from the time it is selected to the time it is broadcast during the contest.
Personnel-
[li]All entrants must be confirmed and endorsed by their national selection committee.
[li]No entrants may have prior issues with law enforcement of any kind whatsoever.
[li]All entrants and their associated entourages will select one of 8 locations to be housed during their stay in the nation. No members of any nations’ staff are to stay in a different location.
[li]A national delegation may not exceed 150 people and may not include more than five security personnel.
[li]All personnel part of the delegation must be critical to the production and presentation of a musical act, including the performers themselves, any stylists, tailors, cooks, chauffeurs, instrument maintenance, dancers, etc.
[li]If a nations’ submission is, for instance, orchestral, and thus the necessary performers exceed the entourage member limit, they will be afforded the total number of performers plus 15 extra spaces (fifteen) in their entourage.
[li]Any personnel associated with a nations’ entourage that commit a criminal offense while visit the city, including but not limited to destruction of property, operating a vehicle without the associated license, consumption of a controlled substance while operating a vehicle, illegal acquisition or possession of a weapon, inhabiting the sovereign area without a proper visa, murder, assault, sexual misconduct, vandalism, public nuisance, poaching, libel, invasion of privacy, theft, burglary, possession of an illicit substance, malicious destruction of environment, animal cruelty, littering, obstruction of justice, verbal assault with intent to disparage race, species, culture, ethnicity, sexuality, financial situation, gender, intelligence, or dress, and all other codified infractions and felonies within host nation law will be arrested, detained, prosecuted, sentenced and served to the fullest extent of sovereign law.
Waivers concerning personnel issues and all other legal documentation can be found below.
Broadcasting-
[li]The host nations selected broadcast provider maintains complete control over the broadcast and all aspects including preproduction, production, postproduction, editing, scripting, commentation, documentation, dissemination, commercial time and advertisers, guest selection, performance order, opening, closing, and intermission presentation, etc.
[li]National broadcasters that receive the feed will be responsible for translation and localization of on-screen text.
[li]Film and news staff are not permitted to cover the presentation of musical acts. They will be permitted to broadcast their own coverage of the red carpet and closing ceremonies only.
[li]All broadcast equipment and dissemination methods must be cleared with the appropriate law enforcement and broadcast provider beforehand. Any unauthorized broadcasts or equipment will result in the ejection of the nations delegation and their forfeiture of the contest.
[li]All news or film staff wishing to cover their nations performance and activities will be included within the 150 person limit.
[li]All news and entertainment broadcasts must be output through state-mandated lines of communication which will be arranged with the broadcast provider beforehand.
[li]No foreign news or entertainment firm is permitted to broadcast any footage shot by a tourist, citizen, participant, staff member, or diplomatic personage until 1 week after the official broadcast of the contest.
[li]All entities wishing to film or otherwise broadcast content covering any person from their nation, or another participating nation, or the host nation, must submit the associated legal documentation that this person or persons gave explicit consent and otherwise understand that their likeness will appear on national and international television, no matter what they may be filmed doing.
Waivers concerning broadcast rights and all other associated legal and corporate paperwork can be found below.[/li][/ul][ul] [/li][/ul][/spoiler]
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Out of Character Rules:
[spoiler][ul][li]Players are allowed to submit a performance from ONE of their nations. If they submit multiple proposals from multiple nations, one will be chosen arbitrarily.
[li]The video you submit must be of a live performance of the musical work, preferably indoors, to allow voting players to understand the dynamic of the music when being performed on a stage, rather than just the merits of the composition alone. CAVEAT: If a nation does not have a suitable human population to allow for a live performance video, they will be allowed to submit a video that is visually complex and has motion and characters in it, with the expectation that this is not going to be a series of still images overlaid with music.
[li]Your submission cannot exceed six minutes. The Shorter the Better. CAVEAT: If your song is part of a larger video, please indicate the timecode of where it stops and where it ends to help determine if it fits the length requirements.
[li]Your submission must have been conceived or otherwise recorded in the last 40 years. This does not mean the version of the music itself, but rather when the original version came into being.
[li]Pick a new artist if the artist has represented your nation in the past. The festival is about culture and art of countries, not specific people.
[li]A preface video is not necessary
[li]Submit your content by a forum PM or by a Discord DM
[li]Your submission must contain a link to a youtube, dailymotion, or vimeo video of your musical act, the name of the song and the performer, and whether or not you are interested in joining the Urthvision Regulations Committee
[li]Your submission must be in no later than 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Sunday April 1st.
[li]Voting will begin on Tuesday April 3rd at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and will last until Monday April 9th at 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Winners will be announced on Tuesday April 10th. [/li][/ul][/spoiler][ul]
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All rules and sections in bold must be followed in RP and OOC. All other content of this post is optional and/or filler.[edit_reason]new time limit[/edit_reason]
