MORE than 3,000 school children will take part in a massed choir concert at Ewood Park, Blackburn.

Primary schools from across the Blackburn with Darwen Borough have begun rehearsals and secondary school children have formed an orchestra to play at the huge event on Monday, July 12.

They will perform numbers including 'No Matter What,' by Boyzone and 'The Bare Necessities,' from The Jungle Book, and the orchestra will play popular classics and marches.

Tina Wilkinson, a teacher at St Stephen's Infant School, Little Harwood, is leading a committee of teachers organising the event. She said: "I was appointed music adviser to the borough council in September and this is my first big project.

"I didn't want it to be competitive, it's more of a celebration of music with everyone meeting together to enjoy it. It's quite an ambitious thing to do, but it has come off thanks to the committee and the council backing."

The concert is sponsored by Crown Paints, Darwen, the Music Cellar, Preston and the Midland Bank. McDonald's, Blackburn, is providing orange juice and Blackburn Transport is organising buses between schools and the stadium.

The children will start rehearsals at 10am and the concert begins at 12.30pm until 2pm. Tickets are £2.

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