MORE than 4,000 young people have been displaying their talents in a three-day arts festival.

The annual North Yorkshire Youth Arts Festival held in Harrogate was one of the most successful of the events on record.

The festival, organised by the North Yorkshire Education Service's youth arm, Connecting Youth Culture, attracted drama, dance, music and theatre from around the world.

It was attended by secondary schools from across the county on Thursday and primary school pupils on Friday.

The main festival took place on Saturday. It included a carnival of Brazilian culture based on fire, air and water, workshops in samba drumming, steel pans and salsa dancing, as well as the chance to experience street dance, drama and music technology.

County Councillor Caroline Patmore, executive member for children's services, said: "The festival really proved to be the high point of the summer calendar.

"It provided the young people of North Yorkshire with the opportunity to come together and explore their passion for music and arts and everyone had a fantastic time."

A main stage showcased the talents of home-grown bands and individual musicians and there were performances by the County Youth Dance Company and the Youth Carnival Orchestra.

Performing arts students from Northallerton College had been commissioned to create a drama on the back of a lorry.

They chose a modern adaptation of the medieval mystery play, The Second Shepherd's Pageant.

Drama teacher Pam Bayston said: "It was a very difficult project, but really good fun and a wonderful arena in which to perform.

"We spent ten weeks rehearsing and creating the set as part of the year 12 course work and it went down really well."