All artists are informed ahead of time of the kids' attendance at their shows, especially when they will sit in the front row of the audience. In some cases, the artists aren't too keen, and request or demand they don't sit up-front, fearing--only fearing, of course--that they might be loud, disrupt the performers, and potentially ruin the whole performance.
Recently, the jury attended a show where, well, let's just say, the artists weren't thrilled about their presence. They didn't want the kids sitting in the first row, and were averse to an announcement of their arrival. This type of situation is complicated for us, the festival and the artists to deal with, and raises a whole slew of questions in trying to solve it. Who gets what they want? Who wins? We don't want to upset anyone, but we also have our own show to run--the CCA jury is, after all, a performance within the festival itself, the artists players within it.
