A worldwide dance competition
The Virtual Festival is a competition organised by the Youth Services Committee and we invite RSCDS Branches and Affiliated Groups to enter from anywhere in the world.
The theme for 2025 is Colours of the Rainbow.
2025 Categories:
Celebrate Local - create a video based on something local to your branch or group; this could be using a local dance devisor, a local dance, musician or theme.
Creative Category – dancing any dance, this category allows you to use your creativity to produce a video within the theme of Colours of the Rainbow.
Under 18s - using the overall theme of ‘Colours of the Rainbow’, all dancers in this category must be under 18.
We're excited to see what you produce! Your branch/group may enter one or both categories, with one video per category.
Voting
Voting for the People's Choice Award will open on 13th October 2025.
Find out more and Apply
Previous Festivals
View all of the entries for 2024 on our You Tube channel.
2024 Winners
- Overall winner – Central Germany Branch
- Peoples’ Choice winner – Central Germany Branch
- Creative Category winner – Central Germany Branch
- Book 53 winner – Belfast Branch
Special commendations: Creative category:
- Would like to join in: Lyon
- Choreography: Lyon
Special commendations: Book 53 category:
- Choice of Tunes: Oxford
- Choreography: Oxford
Theme
The theme was Steps into the Future. Thank you to everyone who submitted a video!
Categories
The categories for entry were:
Book 53 – choose a dance from Book 53. You can view the list here. All the videos for these dances can be viewed for free on the RSCDS YouTube channel.
Creative - dancing any dance, this category allows you to use your creativity to reference the theme of Steps into the Future.
Youth Services were delighted to receive 11 submissions this year, from all over the world. Many thanks to everyone who submitted a video.
Belfast Branch, Budapest Scottish Dance Club, Central Germany Branch, Lisbon Lapa Scottish Country Dance Group, Oxford University Scottish Dance Society, ROIS Dance School, Roxburgh Selkirk and Peebles Branch, SCD Basel, South West Washington State Branch, Sydney Branch, Toronto Association
Overall Judges' Winner and The People's Choice Winner was Central Germany Branch!
Winner of Dance Through the Decades category – Central Germany Branch
Winner of creative category – SCD Basel
Special commendations were received by
Oxford University Scottish Dance Society for Best Choreography
Budapest Scottish Dance Club for Best Team Work
Toronto Association as Most likely to join in with
Congratulations to our winners!
The 2021 theme was “Ceilidh, dancing and beyond”. We invited participants to come up with choreography which included at least one of the dances from this years’ Spring Fling ceilidh dance writing workshop. They were also able to include country dance, and musical or other creative ceilidh items in the dance display.
Overall Judges' Winner and The People's Choice Winner was Toronto!
Winner of Best Team Effort was Lyon Branch
And in the 'Most Likely to join in with' category, Belfast were the winners
Thank you to all that took part and to all that voted in the People's Choice award.
Branches from around the world have gathered (online and in-person), and wow, they have come up with some lovely surprises. All entries were imaginative, creative and lots of fun to watch!
With their journey to all the locations they were planning to go in 2020, Lyon Branch won the popular vote. The winners of the under 16s category are Moscow’s Deer O’Dale dancers with their beautifully danced and presented display “The Scots and the Vikings”.
Congratulations to both winners and thank you everyone for joining the Virtual Festival 2020!
For 2018 we asked Branches & Groups to get a group of dancers together to perform a unique dance based on the theme 'Around the World'. The routine was to be mostly made up of Scottish Country Dance steps and formations, but giving it some exotic flair! We wanted the dances, surroundings and costumes to reflect and enhance the theme – groups were inspired to do something a little different. We received 15 submissions from across the world - Branches and Groups as far away as Buenos Aires, Cape Town and Calgary participated and we are pleased to share them with the world!
In the end, Buenos Aires Scottish Country Dancers won in 2018 with their tango-inspired choreography. You can view their submission by heading to our official YouTube channel or by clicking the video below.
Upcoming Events
Summer School 2025
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