For vocal the McDonald's Performing Arts challenge is a complete waste of time. I've done it 4 times in the past and they don't even bother looking for proper technique, especially for the musical theatre sections. The people who do well are the people who PERFORM well, and have an entertaining perfomance. I haven't yet seen a deserving winner of ANY of the sections. The people who win forget words, sing flat, sharp, and otherwise out of tune but still win. Oh, hey, sorry, they had great costumes and fantastic acting skills!!
Who cares if you can act well? There's drama sections for that.
Sure, you need to be judged on you expression and interpretation of character, but in a VOCAL eisteddfod, you should be marked primarily on VOCAL TECHNIQUE!
It really is a load of bullshit.
Plus when you live 2 1/2 hours from Sydney it's pretty difficult to get there.