“The Youth Music Festival is an opportunity for youth in the region to showcase their musical talent and what we’ve been doing in the schools,” Four Winds artistic director James Crabb said. 

The festival will focus on rhythm and singing and will take place across next weekend, Friday to Sunday, November 16-18, featuring up to 1000 performers. 

On the Friday, pupils from Bermagui, Tanja, Tathra, Central Tilba and Narooma Public Schools will showcase what they have been working on with Four Winds and perform a piece by Lisa Young commissioned by the organisation. 

The Saturday is a workshop day, then the Sunday’s concert will feature the commissioned piece as well as youths from primary to secondary schools performing a range of music from taiko drumming, wind instrumentalists and string quintets to singer-songwriters. 

The Western Sydney Youth Orchestra, Australian Voices and Bega Youth Choir will perform, while Short Black Opera will sing a piece produced with Indigenous Australian children from Bermagui, Eden and Narooma Public Schools. 

READ MORE: The Three Seas fuse jazz rock with mysterious Baul music

Mr Crabb said it was going to be a huge weekend. 

“One of the things that came out of a lot of investigating we did was an alarming amount of children who went to high school did not have much access to music in their primary school years. Knowing how much joy music can bring, we thought we needed to do something about that,” he said. 

Rhythmatist Greg Sheehan has been preparing children for the showcase on the Friday, where they will do a 300-member strong body percussion piece before smaller pieces. 

READ MORE: Urzila Carlson talks laughter, life and meeting her idol Dave Chappelle

“Inherently we all have a really good sense of rhythm and without rhythm we wouldn’t exist,” he said.

“Before we are born we’re listening to the heartbeat of our mother.” 

The festival is at Four Winds, Barragga Bay.

The Friday’s showcase is from 12pm, tickets $10.

The Sunday’s concert is from 11am, tickets $30.