Fidgeting nervously in their seats, they await the adjudicator's findings. They bite their fingernails. They take deep breaths and steal fretful glances around the auditorium. Some find the tension too much and sneak outside for a smoke.
It is not easy being a parent of a child at the Feis Ceoil.
"My heart beat with every note she sang," said Ms Louise Monks from Rathfarnham, Dublin. Her daughter, Stephanie (12), was one of 75 entrants in the opening event of the festival yesterday.
"I was singing along with her here in my seat. I knew all the words. I'd heard her practice enough times at home."
In contrast, Stephanie - one of the younger entrants in the girls' under-14s solo competition - was taking it all in her stride. She was recalled with 11 others to perform a second song in what was her first appearance at a Feis Ceoil, and possibly her last.
"She told me she is finishing up after this," said her mother. "She loves the Spice Girls and Britney Spears. If there was a category for that kind of music she'd stick with it all right."
The festival, now in its 104th year, has introduced a range of new categories this time, including one for harp and voice, and another for guitar. Music and dance pop acts, however, still don't get a look in.
Ms Carmel Byrne, the festival's administrator, said the secret of the Feis Ceoil's success was that it did not pander to modern trends but rather sought the best in classical instrument and voice.
More than 8,000 participants will compete in this year's two-week festival, sponsored by Siemens. Competitions are spread between three venues: the RDS Concert Hall and St Bartholomew's Church, both in Ballsbridge, and Christ Church Cathedral.
Ms Eileen Price, the adjudicator at yesterday's opening event, agreed with the festival's philosophy. "I know pop is here," she told the young singers in her summing up speech, "but you still have to be trained properly."
Ms Price, a London-based music teacher, has, like the other adjudicators, been drafted in from Britain for the event. "It would be hard to find a music teacher here who hasn't got a student in the competition," Ms Byrne explained.
After 20 minutes' deliberations and a further 10 making general comments, Ms Price finally put the parents' minds - and their children's - to rest.
Stephanie was commended for her performance but the trophy went to Denise Fulham (12) from Mullingar, Co Westmeath, a comparative expert with 1 1/2 years' singing experience and a couple of prizes under her belt. This, however, was the biggest one yet.
