15/07/2008
Ten thousand young musicians descended on Birmingham for Music for Youth's National Festival, the first under the leadership of new chief executive Lincoln Abbotts.
The six-day musical extravaganza took place across five venues with a line-up including jazz bands, youth orchestras, choirs, string quartets, Bhangra groups, djembe drummers and even an ocarina band.
"Walking between the various venues and taking in the hugely eclectic range of music, there was a real sense of festival within Birmingham city centre," said Lincoln, who took over the top role at MfY earlier this year. "The quality of performance and level of creativity was consistently high - there was incredible energy throughout the week. "
"Our National Festival offers a platform for the inspirational music making that is going on across the UK. I'm ambitious for the future of Music for Youth, and by the end of the week I felt both proud of what we do already and excited about the ways in which we can evolve the Festival in future years."
Lincoln told the Music Manifesto his festival highlights included hearing choirs take advantage of the acoustics in the newly restored Birmingham Town Hall and watching pop, rock and urban performers on stage at the Carling Academy.
A number of performers from the National Festival will now be invited to take part in the School Prom at the Royal Albert Hall in November. Find out more at www.mfy.org.uk