Awards Rules &
Fairness Policy

Anyone in the paranormal community can be nominated: investigators, researchers, authors, creators, teams, events and community figures. You do not need a large following, professional status or personal connections to be considered.

Anyone can submit a nomination — no account is required. Each nomination must name a nominee, give a genuine reason, and include the nominator's name and email address.

Festival speakers, vendors, partners, sponsors and personal acquaintances of the organising team receive no preferential treatment of any kind.

Nominations are accepted only while the nominations stage is officially open. Opening and closing dates are published on the awards pages — never assumed.

Every nomination is reviewed and moderated by the organising team before any shortlist is prepared. Duplicate nominations for the same nominee may be merged during review.

Nominations that are abusive, discriminatory, defamatory or clearly made in bad faith will be removed.

Shortlists are prepared by the organising team using consistent standards across all categories: the substance of the contribution described, its positive impact on the community, and how well it matches the spirit of the award.

Popularity, audience size and personal relationships play no part in shortlisting decisions.

The People's Hauntie is decided entirely by public vote.

For the other categories, the method for each award — public voting, judging, or a combination — will be clearly published on the awards pages before any voting opens.

Voting opens only at the official voting stage, with dates announced in advance. Votes are validated server-side, limited per person, and protected against bots and repeated voting. Live vote totals are not displayed publicly.

Any member of the organising team or judging panel who has a personal or professional connection to a nominee must declare it.

Where a conflict of interest exists, that person steps back from discussions and decisions concerning the nominee in question.

We use technical and human protections against manipulation: rate limiting, spam and bot detection, server-side validation and review of suspicious activity.

No process can be guaranteed completely fraud-proof, and we do not claim that our judging is independently audited. We do commit to investigating credible concerns and acting on them.

If you believe a nomination, shortlist decision or result is unfair or breaks these rules, email info@theparanormalfestival.com with the details.

Every complaint is reviewed by a member of the organising team who was not involved in the decision concerned, and we will always reply with the outcome.