YORK will become a musical cauldron for five days, when the York Live Music Festival 2000 starts tomorrow morning.

Run as a companion celebration to BBC Music Live, and funded primarily by the City of York Council, the festival has been organised by York musician Chris Johnson and promoter Taraneh Meen.

It involves about 150 largely free events, focused on four outdoor sites; the Coppergate Centre, Parliament Street, St Sampson's Square and Museum Gardens.

All day tomorrow and Friday, youngsters from York schools will be playing a variety of music in the Coppergate Centre, as part of BBC Music Live's initiative for National Young Musicians' Day. From 10am to 3pm, River & Berry take the stage, and from 3pm to 4pm piper Andy May plays Northumbrian folk music.

On Friday, again at the Coppergate Centre, a recorder ensemble performs duets and trios from 11am to 1pm, and folk trio OLA play from 2pm to 4pm.

The focus turns to jazz on Saturday in the Museum Gardens, where the afternoon bill features Out Of Nowhere at 12.30pm, The T&B Specialists, 2pm, Hectic, 3.30pm, and Evening Press jazz correspondent Ron Burnett's Mardi Gras Band at 5pm.

World music dance outfit Elephant Talk will be performing all day at St Sampson's Square on Saturday and Sunday.

From 11am to 1pm on Saturday, York Drum Circle invite you to bring some form of percussion to Parliament Street, where the Barlby foot Tappers Band take over from 2pm to 4pm.

The principal rock showcase on Sunday, in the Museum Gardens, features Sevenball at 1pm; Four Day Hombre at 2pm; Plan B, 3pm; Lo Beams, 4pm; Mostly Autumn, 5pm and headliners Tung, 6pm. BBC radio York will be broadcasting from the stage between 3pm and 6pm.

Beat This!, York's contribution to the BBC's attempt to create a world record-breaking drumming beacon across the country, takes place in the Museum Gardens from noon to 12.30pm on Monday.

Monday's other key events include former Seahorses singer Chris Helme, supported by Lo Beams and Mostly Autumn, at 6pm at York Theatre Royal (tickets £6); Lloyd Cole (9pm) and Cousteau in an acoustic evening at Fibbers, in Stonebow (admission £6); DJs from the York dance night Beat roots, from 3pm to 5.40pm in the Museum Gardens, and Irish dancers from 9am to midday in parliament Street.

Look out, too, for Changing Spaces, a concert of works by University of York composers this Friday at 2pm in the Tempest Anderson Hall, Museum Gardens, York.

Jazz Function's Saturday performance at bettys, in St Helen's Square, has sold out. Full listings for York Live Music will appear on the Evening Press What's On page and on our Internet site at www.thisisyork.co.uk