The Music for Youth Regional Festival Series 2025 is the UK’s largest festival for young musicians. As we kick-off our highly anticipated annual season, this year’s festivals will be held from March – April 2025 in over 20 locations across the UK, as well as a UK-wide online festival, titled Mentor Connects.
Who Can Take Part?
Anyone can sign up to perform, or you can submit a recording of your performance to ‘Mentor Connects’. We welcome all types of ensembles, groups, bands and choirs, playing any musical genre. It doesn’t matter how far you are in your musical journey because anyone with a passion for live music can sign up. The only requirement is that you are a group of two or more musicians aged 21 or younger.
The Music for Youth Regional Festival is a unique and fantastic opportunity for young musicians to perform live and share their music, listen to performances from other groups, meet other musicians and gain invaluable advice and guidance from professional musicians and music educators: our Music Mentors.
If you perform at a Music for Youth Regional Festival or submit a recording to our Mentor Connects platform, you will be invited to attend the 2025 National Festival in Birmingham in July.
You can sign-up and secure your spot today for the Regional Festivals and the Mentor Connects programme, via the form further down on this page. Or for more information about eligibility and costs, please visit our FAQ page here.
2025 Regional Festival Locations
- Doncaster Regional Festival, Don Valley Academy, Jossey Lane, Scawthorpe, Doncaster DN5 9DD, 1st March
- Doncaster Regional Festival, Don Valley Academy, Jossey Lane, Scawthorpe, Doncaster DN5 9DD, 2nd March
- Kings Lynn Regional Festival, Peter Hopkins Hall, Springwood High School, King’s Lynn. PE30 4AW, 5th March
- Rochdale Regional Festival, Rochdale Town Hall, 7th March
- Rochdale Regional Festival, Rochdale Town Hall, 8th March
- Kingston upon Hull Regional Festival, Albemarle Music Centre, 13th March
- Norfolk and Suffolk Regional Festival, Snape Maltings, 14th March
- Kingston upon Hull Regional Festival, Albemarle Music Centre, 14th March
- Together for Music, B:Music, Birmingham 14th March
- Huddersfield Regional Festival, Colne Valley High School, 15th March
- Northamptonshire Regional Festival, Spinney Theatre, Northampton School for Girls, 15th March
- Lincolnshire Regional Festival, Haven High Academy, Marian Road, Boston, PE21 9HB 15th March
- Kingston upon Hull Regional Festival, Albemarle Music Centre, 15th March
- Huddersfield Regional Festival, Colne Valley High School, 16th March
- Northamptonshire Regional Festival, Cripps Hall Theatre, Northampton School for Boys, 22nd March
- Northamptonshire Regional Festival, Cripps Hall Theatre, Northampton School for Boys, 23rd March
- Cornwall Regional Festival, Truro Methodist Church, 18 Union Place, Truro, TR1 1EP, 27th March
- Cornwall Regional Festival, Truro Methodist Church, 18 Union Place, Truro, TR1 1EP, 28th March
- Cornwall Frequencies, TBC, 29th March
- Swindon Regional Festival, The Platform Faringdon Road Swindon SN1 5BJ, 30th March
- Milton Keynes Festival, Church of Christ the Cornerstone, 300 Saxon Gate, Milton Keynes MK9 2ES, 2nd April
- Newport Festival, Caerleon Comprehensive School, Cold Bath Road, Caerleon, Newport, South Wales, NP18 1NF, 5th April
- Newport Festival, Caerleon Comprehensive School, Cold Bath Road, Caerleon, Newport, South Wales, NP18 1NF, 6th April
Mentor Connects
If you cannot attend a Music for Youth Regional Festival, you can submit a recording to our online Mentor Connects platform.
Mentor Connects entry recordings will be sent to an MFY Music Mentor and expert feedback on your performance will be sent to you at the beginning of April via email.
NB as is the case with the in-person Regional Festivals, we cannot accept solo performer entries to our Mentor Connects Programme. This programme is open to anyone aged 21 or under in groups of 2 or more.
When applying to Mentor Connects via the form below, you will need to submit either an audio or video link. This will need to be uploaded to a site like Youtube, Spotify, Soundcloud or Vimeo. If you choose to make the file password protected, please remember to include the details we will need in order to be able to access it.
For more info, please see the FAQ below. Sign-up for Mentor Connects is done via the form further down this page.
Birmingham Music for Youth Festival 2024 - Together for Music
We are delighted to announce Together for Music, a specially designed inclusive music festival. This festival promotes groups of all abilities within the deaf, neurodivergent and disabled communities.
Supported by the Trinity College London’s Award and Certificates in Musical Development (ACMD) qualification, in association with Sounds of Intent programme and being hosted at B:Music, Birmingham,, we are delighted to add such an exciting and accessible Festival to the programme which promises to empower and inspire everyone involved. Join us for an engaging and interactive day of music-making!
The Festival will be on Friday 14th March, and will feature open sign-up performance slots, workshops and a marketplace as well as talks from Trinity College London on the ACMD qualification.
Frequently Asked Questions
Click here for our Frequently Asked Questions about the Regional Festivals. If you cannot find the answer to your questions on the FAQs, you can get in touch with us via mfy@mfy.org.uk and one of the MFY team will reply as soon as possible.
How much does it cost to take part?
Participating in a Regional Festival or online via our Mentor Connects programme costs £35 per group/entry. This can be paid when you sign up, or you can select ‘pay later’ if you require an invoice.
For groups who may find this cost prohibitive, we have a subsidy scheme available to ensure we reduce as many barriers to participation as possible. Please visit our subsidy page here for more information on how to apply. We will review applications on a Thursday each week to ensure that groups don’t have to wait to know the level of support we can provide.
Sign up for in-person Regional Festivals and the Mentor Connects Programme here
Sign up now!
Please note applications to the Regional Festivals will close on Monday 9 December 2024
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