Project context: Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival delivers one of Scotland's most inclusive multicultural arts engagement programmes, the results of which can be seen in our large-scale carnival event (Edinburgh Festival Carnival - EFC) which attracts an audience of around 20,000. Our arts engagement activities have increased the quality and quantity of performing arts for young people available in Edinburgh, with our large-scale parade reaching an inter-generational audience with increasing participation from Edinburgh’s culturally diverse communities and those least engaged. Our exchange project 'Music Talks' took place within the wider context of Edinburgh Festival Carnival, with a programme of high-quality open-access arts activities for young people, from our partner groups in France, the Netherlands and Portugal, impacting on widening diverse participation, arts learning and delivered by local and international youth arts workers. What we wanted to achieve: For this KA1 Erasmus+ project, we wanted professional 'music makers' to work with the young percussionists to create a new outdoor mobile and static performances for presentation within the carnival parade and in the community. One of the projects aims was to increase levels of arts participation in Edinburgh particularly from underrepresented groups, allowing for local young people to have an international experience. Our project also aimed to celebrate European diversity, through engaging with partners who worked with young people from backgrounds of ‘protected characteristics’ (see https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/equality-act/protected-characteristics). How we respond to the challenges facing young people with 'protected characteristics': Our response was to develop and deliver an arts engagement mobility project, that brought young people together from different backgrounds and cultures to explore create and present collaborative work within a large-scale cultural event. This collaborative work (around inter-cultural solidarity) looked to encourage local people/audiences to celebrate the richness and diversity of multi-cultural and multi-faith contemporary European and Scottish societies. Collaborative workshops between all the partners and participants supported by professional arts trainers as well as peer-led sessions saw work delivered that built key skills and competencies in 'co-creation' enabling young people to develop a collaborative performance that offered audiences something new. Performance work and workshops were also presented at a community festival which increased the impact of the project and raised the visibility of the Erasmus+ programme. Objectives: In general to see the participants gain the knowledge and skills needed to develop and present a collaborative performance in public; deliver peer-to-peer arts learning workshops . Specific project objectives: To provide quality international mobility opportunities for young people from diverse backgrounds. To gain new competencies and experiences of arts engagement as a tool for making positive community contributions. To deepen knowledge, skills and attitude to better organize international youth arts projects. To build participant skills through practical workshops, peer to peer work, community engagement and partnership building activities. To use social media platforms to disseminate the project results. The issues we looked to address included: Promotion of positive activities developed and delivered with and by young people. Equality of access to professional mobility opportunities for young people from backgrounds of less opportunity. Needs: To develop young people's transversal skills and professional competences. To produce work that empowered young people through acknowledging and sharing diverse cultural heritage. To develop an understanding of music engagement practices that impact on the wider community development. Links with European Objectives: Our project reinforced the aims of the European Youth Strategy ‘Investing and Empowering’ and ‘Youth on the Move 2020’ both policies aiming to create equal opportunities for all, promote active citizenship and social inclusion. Our project focused on creating mobility experiences for young people from minority backgrounds who do not easily access international work, an issue echoed in 'Building a Stronger Europe' initiative (May 2018) which specifically states that the Commission's programmes still need to attract more people from diverse backgrounds.