The BBC has revealed the details of its most ambitious music broadcast ever. BBC Music Live, a five day long festival in May will be unique in offering a thousand hours of live music programming, staging world class performances across every musical genre in leading venues across the whole of the UK, creating opportunities for the entire population to participate in the celebration of live music during and beyond the festival, and culminating in an unprecedented 24 hour schedule of continuous live music- based programming on BBC ONE and BBC TWO.

For five days at the end of May (25th to 29th), the UK will become the venue for one big musical party. Already, more than 5,000 events have been registered on the BBC Music Live database, and the number is rising fast. From Elton John at Woburn Abbey to Mozart’s Figaro Live from a stately home, from Top of the Pops at the Sheffield Arena to a special car horn symphony in Rotherham, from Tony Bennett at Leeds castle to an all-nighter of the very best in Asian classical music, BBC Music Live will represent every kind of music in every area of the UK.

Radio 1 is offering extended coverage of the celebrated dance festival from Homelands. Another highlight, amongst many hours of special programmes and events, will be surprise rooftop gigs at secret locations, featuring major bands, to be revealed only hours before Jo Whiley’s lunchtime show.

Elton John, George Benson, Steve Earle, Bill Wyman and The Rhythm Kings are just some of the artists appearing around the UK for Radio 2. In a special series of programmes, Johnnie Walker returns to his pirate roots by taking to the water - hosting dockside concerts.

Radio 3 uses BBC Music Live as the catalyst for a programme of musical adventures. Leonard Bernstein’s controversial Mass has not been broadcast for some 20 years, but a vast production in Cardiff featuring the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, will change all that. The network also has three unique all night events - one from Birmingham with the stars of South Asian classical music; another which brings performers from all over the world for a WOMAD special, and lastly, a unique six-hour performance of Eric Satie’s piano marathon, the Vexations, from Hay. Radio 3 also joins BBC television to celebrate the final stages of the BBC Young Musicians Competition. Appropriately BBC Music Live is the sponsor of this year’s event and the final takes place in Manchester during the festival weekend.

Radios 4 and 5 are covering the festival with programmes of religious music, review and reportage from all over the UK. All the network radio concerts can also be heard on BBC Digital Radio in crystal clear sound quality.

The BBC World Service takes highlights of the festival to more than 150 million people around the globe, including coverage of the Window on the World International Music Festival at North Shields, and a special concert by Kennedy from Skyscape at the Greenwich Dome.

The BBC across the whole of the United Kingdom, is reflecting the host of activity for BBC Music Live.

All the 39 English local radio stations, the Asian Network, BBC Scotland, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Wales are reflecting the vast range of events in their area - there are more than 5,000 across all four nations - and providing "The Essential Guide" to all concerts, festivals, workshops and performances. Regular news and features together with comprehensive listings throughout Music Live will keep local listeners completely in touch with all the activities that they can attend in their area.

BBC Radio is the backbone of the festival, but for this one-off UK-wide Music Live, the BBC will make television history with the climax of the festival captured in a continuous 24 hour broadcast between BBC ONE and BBC TWO.

The schedule will feature stars of just about every musical genre, performances and events from dozens of live outside broadcast locations and some amazing moments when broadcasting links musicians all around the UK. Performance Highlights include a special line-up at Abbey Road including Paul Weller, Eternal, Reef and Idlewild; virtuoso Kennedy on the beautiful island of Sark; excerpts from the blues festival, Bishopstock 2000; Atlantic Gateway, a big Merseyside gig; a special gospel concert at the newly-opened Somerset House in London in support of Children For Peace and Hot Press Uncovered, a specially created collaboration of stars of contemporary Irish music in Dublin.

TV highlights also include special editions of Top of the Pops, Live & Kicking, Blue Peter and Later With Jools, plus Figaro Live, a schools link-up between Soweto and Cheshire, and the building of a 24 hour teen band, voted for by viewers.

During BBC Music Live, opportunities will also be created for the audience to participate in live music and help music live on through a range of BBC Music Live ‘legacy’ projects.

At the heart of the BBC’s ambition to provide a lasting musical legacy will be a practical opportunity for music lovers to pass on their passion to a new generation of young music makers through the donation of working instruments. BBC Music Live has joined forces with National Foundation for Youth Music to announce the Instrument Amnesty.

As part of five days’ continuous music making the BBC will encourage the audience to join in events local to them. Already more than two hundred and fifty free musical street festivals are planned for towns, cities and villages around the UK.

The first day of the festival , Young Music Makers Day on 25th May, will see hundreds of schools and youth projects celebrate and make music of all types across the UK A highlight of the day will be Jools Holland dashing across all four nations to join young jazz musicians in their music making. The Singing Challenge running in collaboration with National Foundation for Youth Music will encourage young people to sing on the Perfect Day.

Yes You Can Make Music! is the message of the Prince’s Trust Hidden Talent Network, launched as part of BBC Music Live with the aim of promoting music making opportunities in the community for young people. A special announcement with further details of this project will be made shortly.

Beat This! At noon on Monday 29th May, a drumming beacon relay will be ignited by a group called The Different Drums of Ireland, performing on the City Walls of Derry. The group will play a drumming motif created by six of the world’s leading percussionists. The beat will travel across the length of Northern Ireland and spread to the to the North of Scotland, then south to England and Wales, finishing in the Channel Islands. On route it will bring a long thousands of drummers of every kind - African, Rock’n’Roll, massed samba bands, the famous Kodo Drummers and classical percussionists, as well as human beat boxes and rank amateurs joining in for the very first time, beating out the biggest noise the UK has ever known.

The climax of the whole festival will be a recreation of Lou Reed’s classic Perfect Day, performed live up and down the UK. BBC Radio and TV - local, national and international services will combine to deliver this unique moment, a fitting finale to a spectacular weekend.