Privacy notice
How the Cheltenham Festival of Performing Arts collects and uses personal information.
Who we are
Cheltenham Festival of Performing Arts is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, registered charity 1157550. We decide how your information is used, which makes us the data controller.
Questions about your data go to info@cfpa.org.uk.
What we collect and why
Entering the festival
When you create an account and enter, we collect the account holder’s name and contact details, and for each performer their name, date of birth (for performers under 19) and, for children of compulsory school age, the full-time school they attend. We use this to run entries, apply the age rules, build the timetable and meet the legal requirements for child performers.
Payments
Card payments for entries are processed by a payment provider on our behalf.
Uploads
Dance music is uploaded through a Google form, which needs a Google account. Poems, stories and films are submitted through a form on this website, which asks for your name, email address, the title, the class and, for under 18s, a parent’s name.
Headteacher approval
Schools and parents email headteacher approvals to info@cfpa.org.uk, and they’re checked at the Front Desk during the festival.
Friends, donors and email updates
Friends donations and Multiple Entry Tickets are handled through Zeffy, which collects your name, contact details and payment. Zeffy also sends our email updates, and only to people who have asked for them.
Volunteers
We keep volunteers’ names and contact details to organise the festival.
This website and cookies
This website doesn’t use cookies to track you or show you adverts. Reading it stores nothing on your device.
We count visits with Koko Analytics, which runs on our own website. It uses no cookies, stores nothing on your device and shares nothing with anyone else. It tells us how many people read each page, not who they are.
If you log in to enter the festival, the entry system sets cookies to keep you signed in while you enter. Entering can’t work without them, so they can’t be switched off.
Links to Zeffy, Facebook, Instagram and other websites take you to sites with their own cookie policies.
Our lawful bases
Contract for running entries and selling tickets. Legal obligation for child performer requirements and financial records. Legitimate interests for organising volunteers and the festival. Consent for email updates and for photographs of award winners.
What we publish
On this website, children appear by first name only. Young Performer Award winners are shown by first name, with a photograph where consent has been given.
Who we share it with
Section secretaries and adjudicators see the entries for their classes. The local authority may inspect headteacher approvals. Organisations that process data for us: Squareone Software (website and booking system), Google (email and forms), Zeffy (Friends donations, tickets and email) and the payment provider for entries. We don’t sell personal data, and we share it with law enforcement only when required.
How long we keep it
We keep information only as long as we need it to run the festival and meet our legal and accounting duties. Accounts carry over between years so returning entrants don’t need to register again.
Your rights
You can ask to see, correct or delete your information, object to how we use it or withdraw consent at any time. Email info@cfpa.org.uk. If you’re unhappy with how we’ve handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office at ico.org.uk (opens in a new tab).
Last updated: 5 October 2026.