On a grey and drizzly day in Nottingham, expectations of a positive turn out were a little low as we pulled into the car park at Southglade leisure centre. So it was a heart warming sight to walk around the huge Your Game lorry and see the football pitches alive with hundreds of colourful football shirts, graffiti artists hard at work, budding DJ’s, reporters and photographers all huddled in the corners with their respective ‘experts’.

The football tournament was the main showpiece of the day accompanied by great urban music being streamed across the site through carefully placed twelve foot high speakers. Male and female teams came from all over Nottingham and the surrounding counties, to play in the tournament and be in with a chance of winning the opportunity to play in the National final at Birmingham City’s St. Andrews on Monday 19th May.

The festival is not just about the football, which was clear when the tournament took a break for volunteers to step up and go head to head with MC Lee Ramsay on the microphone. Lee was obviously impressed with some of the local talent and so were the swarms of music fans that stood together out of the rain for a few minutes.

The message from supporters like Prime Minister Gordon Brown is that “The Your Game festivals show how sport and music can unite people from different areas and cultures”. Talking to some of the players and young people involved on the day, there was a real feeling that this had been achieved. The positive feeling continued to grow as the day continued and those involved were left with a feeling of achievement.

Sport and Music were clearly fused as one as young volunteers from the Ball Fusion project stepped into centre stage to show off some of their skills. Effortlessly controlling the football within a confined space went down a storm with the already formed crowd. Their freestyle technique involved skills you might never see during a competitive football match but demonstrated a new level of technical excellence. For more information on ball fusion visit www.ballfusion.com

Sue Smith, of England and Leeds Women’s FC was clearly impressed as she watched from the sidelines. Sue had taken time out of FA Cup preparations to show her support for festival, and was pleased to see four girls teams in this year’s competition which was a large improvement on last years only team.

Kemet FM favourite, Lee Ramsay was showing his support too, and lifted the mood by performing his latest single live and encouraging young MC’s to follow in his career footsteps.

Mike Geddes, from the BBC was pleased with how the event had been received, and the unexpected turn out despite the weather. Heavily involved with the regional coordination of each event, he is hoping to involve more organisations and more cities when the event is back in 2009.

This year’s festival continues to travel the country by hitting a different city every Wednesday, with the team hitting Manchester next week.

Lucy Glynn