Hundreds of musicians will take to the streets of Colchester today
It's to celebrate the town's new city status
Hundreds of musical performers are set to gather in Colchester today - in part to celebrate its new city status.
The Musicircus event will be held today in the city centre and will involve artists performing in unison, trying to make as much noise as possible.
It's described as a free community music event which will 'immerse the town centre in sound', as hundreds of local artists share their musical talent from different locations, all at the same time, with the intention of 'creating a crescendo of sound throughout the town, from Culver Square to Red Lion Walk'.
Organisers say listeners’ ears will naturally isolate and harmonise the collections of sounds that they enjoy most, generating their own individual orchestra of performance, meaning everyone's experience will be different.
Katie Skingle has helped organise the event: "You will hear everything and you will hear nothing.
"The music will all be simultaneous. All the performers - there's over 250 of them - will be playing at the same time, so it's a circus of music celebration.
"You will tune in to what your ears want to tune into and it will give people the opportunity to hear instruments they might not have heard before."
She also suggests there may be a few surprises along the way: "You will definitely hear it before you see it.
"Make sure to look up and look close. Sometimes there might be an opera singer in a window or there might be someone that's that's hiding beneath or around something.
"They're all in quirky, unusual places and we may or may not even have some surprises up on the roof."
Whilst the event wasn't planned specifically to celebrate Colchester's newly awarded city status, Katie thinks it's great timing: "We are very aware of the fact it's the first live music event since the city status has been announced for Colchester and we're incredibly proud, privileged and excited to be able to celebrate that and celebrate all music and all of Colchester."