More than 10,000 young musicians aged between four and 18 will descend on Birmingham from all parts of the UK over the next six days, clutching violins, saxophones, voices and every-thing else that makes a sound.

The National Festival of Music for Youth, the world's largest children's music festival, was held in the city for the first time last year because of the closure of the Royal Festival Hall for a two-year refurbishment.

It proved such a success that in April its promoter, the educational charity Music for Youth, announced that the festival will stay in Birmingham for at least five years, with a view to making it a permanent fixture here.

Larry Westland, executive director of Music for Youth, said: "The atmosphere at last year's festival was wonderful and everyone involved was so helpful and welcoming that we have decided the festival will return to Birmingham not only, as planned, for this July, but for the foreseeable future.

"Following on from last year's triumph, this year's will be even bigger - with music spilling out into Chamberlain Square and beside the canal."

Last year's success was achieved despite the event taking place in the immediate aftermath of the July 7 bombings and the evacuation of Birmingham city centre, which led to some schools withdrawing at the last minute.

The festival, which spans every kind of music-making from infant percussion groups to professional-quality youth orchestras, took over Symphony Hall, the Adrian Boult Hall and the CBSO Centre.

This year the Barfly in Digbeth has been added as the venue for rock and pop groups, which has freed space to expand the jazz progamme to two days.

Although Birmingham hasn't quite got the message yet, the event is open to the public.

A day-ticket, which allows access to all venues with the exception of a handful of special events, costs a modest £7, or just £4 for over-60s, students and under-16s.

This year, the festival will have a higher public profile, with participants performing on a stage in Birminmgham's Chamberlain Square each day until Friday.

Times vary each day, starting at between 11.15am and 11.45am and running through to between 3pm and 4.45pm.

It is certainly a hugely energising event to dip into, as I can testify from last year.

The performances I managed to see were only a small fragment of the total event, but I was still left with an impression of having seen an astonishing number of young people performing to an astonishing level.

The jazz big band session at the Adrian Boult Hall in particular sticks in my mind as an amazing spectacle, as waves of youngsters clutching shiny brass instruments exited stage right to be replaced by a seem-ingly identical waves of youngsters from some completely different part of the country, with equally shiny instruments, entering stage left.

The wind bands from Corn-wall and Gwent at Symphony Hall also left an impression that is still vivid after a year.

And then there were the frankly astonishing orchestras from Berkshire and Northamptonshire who gave utterly professional performances of demanding music by Gershwin and Bartok on the Saturday.

Each group performing at the festival receives a certificate, as w ell as feedback on its performance.

The adjudicators also have the opportunity to award Outstanding and Highly Commended Performance Awards in most categories for special performances on the day.

After the festival, 30 groups will be invited to perform at the Schools Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in November.

In addition to the main performance programme, a national forum on music lead-ership in the 21st Century, Changing Tunes,is being held at Birmingham Rep tomorrow, and also tomorrow choral directors and teachers have a workshop - Singposium 2006 - at the CBSO Centre in Berkley Street. ..SUPL: