A FESTIVAL giving young people across Redditch an exciting and accessible introduction to the arts took place at Redditch Youth House last week.

The Fusion Youth Arts Festival saw workshop sessions in African and Asian drumming, aerial trapeze, circus, the martial art of capoeria, DJ-ing, visual arts and film production for 12 to 18 year olds taking place.

All 13 of the artists involved toured the town's five high schools before the festival, putting on presentations and workshops over two days.

The project was organised by Redditch Council in association with its new initiative, Scheme for Teen Arts (START), which aims to re-introduce Redditch youngsters to the arts and develop younger audiences at the Palace Theatre by directly involving them in the management of various youth arts events.

START already has a number of successes under its belt, with sell-out audiences at the Palace Theatre for Green Ginger Theatre Company and black modern dance company Union Dance from Westminster with Urban Classics.

And a feature film made by youngsters involved in Fusion will be given its premiere screening at the Alcester Street theatre on July 18.

These included live static trapeze performances from Bristol-based Circomedia and Passo a Passo's Marcos Dos Santos from Brazil performed his one-man show Mare, which wove together capoeria, combat and contemporary dance.