Performances from last year's Gateway to Music arts festival. The annual event will run from July 2 to Aug 31 in Beijing this year. Run by the Forbidden City Concert Hall, the event will feature a variety of programs staged by international artists for children, including dance, music and acrobatics. [Photo provided to China Daily]

A Beijing festival is set to inspire kids to pick up an instrument over the holidays, Chen Nan reports.

Having established itself as one of Beijing's biggest arts festivals for children during the summer vacation since 1995, the annual Gateway to Music, which will take place at the Forbidden City Concert Hall, is set to open on July 2.

With 16 mini summer camps teaching Western classical music, traditional Chinese opera, traditional Chinese folk dance and calligraphy to children as well as over 100 live performances and public lectures, the festival will run for two months until Aug 31. Looking to beef up its educational role, the festival organizers hope to build up more opportunities for interaction between international artists, local musicians and young Chinese students.

Chinese conductor Tan Lihua will lead the Beijing Symphony Orchestra to open the festival with a concert held on July 5 at the Forbidden City Concert Hall, with repertoires including The Blue Danube, by Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, and He's a Pirate, the theme tune to Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean film.