74th European Music Festival for Young People

The European Music Festival for Young People (EMJ) is a musical gathering of nearly 4,000 musicians, children and young people under 28, from all over the world. We organize this festival annually during the first weekend of May in Neerpelt, Belgium. It alternates between a choir festival and an instrumental festival.

All festival activities are fully aligned with the lives of children and young people and aim to foster a moment of musical enjoyment and camaraderie.

In addition to our core values of mutual respect and fraternisation, which allow us to deeply appreciate each other’s talents, each group performs before an international jury of conductors and composers. This expert jury will not only assess each performance but also provide each group with an individual and motivating evaluation report.

In 2026, we will organize the 74th vocal edition of our festival for children’s, youth, and university choirs. All registration information can be found on our website.