individual awards were announced at the end of the Festival. At the first Festival in 1994, first prize was awarded to the production of Utopia, Limited, presented by the Gilbert & Sullivan Society of Maine, in the US (then known as the G&S Society of Hancock County). The Derby Gilbert & Sullivan Company won the first prize more often than any other company (six times); and the South Anglia Savoy Players won five times and placed second four times. Festival Productions, Ireland, won in three consecutive years, 2007 to 2009. Individual awards were also presented for performers, directors and musical directors. The internet group SavoyNet, which has competed each year since 1997, were Festival Champions in 2013 and 2018 and are the first and only company to present all 14 G&S operas at the Festival. By the end of the second decade of the Festival, the number of amateur productions decreased, and after 2019, the competitive aspect of the Festival has been discontinued. The Festival organizers have also rehearsed and presented, some years, an adult "Festival production" or a "Youth Production" (for performers aged 9 to 19). Beginning in 2015, they have presented a "Bus Pass Opera" production (for performers over 60). A "Unifest" competition among university groups is presented simultaneously, as part of the Festival fringe. Professional productions As the Festival matured, it presented more and more professional performances, first on weekends and now throughout the programme. These are given by companies such as the Carl Rosa Opera Company, Opera della Luna, the New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players, Charles Court Opera, and the Festival's self-produced National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company, which has starred such well-known G&S performers as Richard Suart, Simon Butteriss, Bruce Graham, Gillian Knight, Barry Clark, Michael Rayner, Patricia Leonard, Donald Maxwell, Jill Pert, Gareth Jones, Oliver White, Rebecca Bottone, Ian Belsey and the Opera Babes. John Owen Edwards, David Russell Hulme, David Steadman, Andrew Nicklin and John Andrews have served as musical director of the company. Sky Arts calls these performers "some of the UK’s finest exponents of musical theatre". Raymond J. Walker wrote of the National G&S Opera Company: "With a reputation for strong casts [and] energetic delivery, traditionally fresh interpretations are brought to roles familiar to a large proportion of the [Festival] audiences. With good stars like Jill Pert and Richard Suart in key roles, we were assured of an excellent evening’s