KANJ Got Talent - Rules and Guidelines

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Disclaimer:

To enter the  KANJ Got Talent competition, participants must agree to be bound by the following rules and indicate acceptance while completing their registration:

 

1. KANJ reserves the right to solely determine eligibility for the reasons stated herein or on any other reasonable basis.

2. KANJ reserves the right to make alterations to the rules at any time and participants must agree to abide by the most recent version of the rules.

3. KANJ volunteers and judges reserve the right to disqualify a participant from an event for improper conduct and behavior.

4. By entering into any of the competitions, it is agreed that participants will not hold KANJ or its volunteers responsible for injuries sustained or illnesses contracted while in attendance and/or participating. KANJ and the hosting facility are not responsible for personal injury or property loss or damage to either contestant or spectators.

5. The parents or guardians must agree that they will be accompanying the children all the time. KANJ will not be responsible for supervising participants or non-participating  kids.

6. KANJ reserves the right to take videos and pictures of the participants and competition and publish it to social media platforms or on KANJ  website. The participants must write an email to kanjgottalent@kanj.org before the registration deadline, if they wish to exclude their pictures from being published.

7. KANJ reserves the right to publish stories, paintings and drawings submitted in the competitions on the KANJ website or other media and communications channels.

8. KANJ is not responsible for any claims of copyright violations.

9. Organizers reserve the right to cancel a whole event or a specific category within the event in case of any technical reasons without explanation. An event may be deemed non-competitive or cancelled if there are less than 3 participants for that event category. 

10. Organizers may change the sequence of events or stages on the event days. 

General Rules:

1. KANJ will host several competitions under the “KANJ Got Talent 2026 - KGT ‘26” banner for the following category.

   • Category 1 – 1st grade to 3rd grade

   • Category 2 – 4th grade to 6th grade

   • Category 3 – 7th grade to 9th grade

   • Category 4 – 10th grade to 12th grade

2. There is no gender based separation for events. All the events are gender neutral and the participants will compete together irrespective of gender.

3. The different events will be held on 2 weekends as follows:

 

• Day 1 - March 14th, 2026 at Cedar Hill Prep School: Pencil Sketching, Painting Watercolor, Story Writing, Story Telling/Public Speaking, Instrumental Music (String & Keyboard), Mohiniyattam & Folk Dance.

• Day 2 - March 22nd, 2026 at <TBD> : Classical Music, Light Music, Indian music, Western Music, Fancy Dress, Bharatanatyam, Cinematic Dance & Cinematic Group Dance(non-folk dance).

1. Participants should be of Kerala origin residing in North America belonging to the tristate regions, where at least one of the parents is of Malayalee origin.

2. Participants MUST register online @ https://www.parents.kanj.org/login. Parents must create an account in the Parent portal using the same email id, for each household, to register for events. Walk in registrations are NOT allowed. The deadline for registration is Feb 28th.

3. The participants registration details, event day schedule and track uploads can be managed via the portal after the registration. 

4. Participants should bring their own supplies (dance costumes, make up, watercolor, pencil, pen, etc.) required for their events. The organizers will provide the paper for story writing, painting and pencil sketching. Participants are NOT allowed to use their own paper for these events.

5. Participants should report at least 30 minutes before the beginning of the event at their respective stage in the venue. Participants who arrive after the conclusion of their event will not be allowed to participate and their registration for that event will be deemed canceled and the registration fees will NOT be reimbursed. In such cases participants may still participate in other events for which they have registered, provided they show up on time as stipulated above (30 mins before event start).

6. The judge's judgement decision for all events will be final and will not be changed.

7. Participants shall NOT receive any communication from the organizers if they fail to report at the venue on time.

8. For the events for which a Music track/Karaoke is allowed, tracks must be uploaded as per the time limit for the specific event, through the KANJ parent portal before Mar 6th for Day 1 (Mar 14th) events and before Mar 13th for Day 2 (Mar 21st) events. Refer to the Events & Judgement Criteria page for more details.

9. Participants are not allowed to withdraw or change from a registered event once the registration is closed earlier or by the registration deadline, whatever occurs first. 

10. No refunds will be issued if the participant withdraws or in the event of no show.

11. Food will be available for purchase at the Venue for all participants & spectators. Participants will receive a small snack and lunch free of cost. 

12. All participants must sign the Waiver form for both event days at check-in upon arrival at the venue.

 

Competition Rules:

1. Competitions will be conducted based on the grade categories mentioned above.

2. For administrative purposes, categories are determined based on the grade/class in which the participant is currently studying in their school.

3. For Group category, there should be a minimum of 3 participants and maximum of 10.  A participant can participate in ONLY ONE group event. The category of the group event is determined by the oldest participant's grade category. 

Example:- if there are 5 children in Cat 1 and  2 children in Cat 2 and 1 child in Cat 3, the Category of that group will be considered as Cat 3.

1. False representation of the category will result in disqualification of the participant/team.

2. Participants can only participate in ONE category for all the events. However, participants may be assigned a different category for a group event based on the age of the other participants in the group.

3. The parents or guardians should accompany the children all the time and will be responsible for any damage done by the child at the venue. KANJ is not responsible for any issues that may arise if the child is left unattended.

4. Points are allocated for solo events will be as follows:

   1. 1st place – 5 points

   2. 2nd place – 3 points

   3. 3rd Place – 2 Points

KANJ Star Performer 2026 Award:

The male or female participant, from each category who gets the maximum points, will be declared the KGT Star performer of the year for that category. 

 

There will be one KGT Star Performer selected for each grade category based on the following criteria:

1. Total number of points received for the participant from all the participating solo events (5 points for first prize, 3 points for second prize and 2 points for third prize).

2. Points from the group events are NOT considered towards the KGT star credit.

3. One participant may participate up to a maximum of 7 solo events on Day 1 & 5 solo events on Day 2.

4. One participant may participate in only ONE group event.

5. The points received in a solo event will be counted towards the KGT star performer award only if there were at least 4 participants for that specific event.

6. In the event of a tie in total points, the Star Award winner for the category shall be determined based on the highest number of 1st prizes, followed by 2nd prizes and then 3rd prizes.

7. The performance event “KANJ Got Talent” is not counted towards the KGT Star Performer Award.

 

Note: If the highest-scoring participant in a category is a prior KGT Star Performer Award recipient, the award shall be granted to that participant AND the next highest-scoring participant within the same grade category.

 

​​Pricing:

• ​For individual events, registration fees are $30 for each event.

• For group events, registration fees are $30 for each participant.

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