ORGANISERS said this year's Derby Arts Festival was a huge success down to the "overwhelming talent" of participants.
But now, they are calling for more schools in the city to get involved.
Speech and Drama section secretary Sue Salaun said: "It has been a great success but we would love to see more local schools enter.
"The pupils get so much out of it and it is a fantastic experience.
"Pupils are very involved in other events, such as sporting activities, so why not speech and drama as well?"
The 106th Derby Arts Festival finished on Saturday.
Classes in a variety of sections – including vocal, instrumental, speech and drama, ballet and stage dancing – took place at venues across the city, including the Guildhall Theatre and Derby Cathedral. More than 1,200 entries were received for the festival, despite previous concerns over a lack of applications.
Sue added: "The talent was overwhelming. We were very impressed with the entries, especially considering how young some of the performers are.
"Everyone who took part can be justly proud of their performances and one of the adjudicators, Cally Foster, was positive and encouraging and gave excellent advice to help the performers improve further.
"Participating in the festival is a very worthwhile educational experience.
"Being able to speak to an audience with clarity and loudly, being able to interpret a character for an audience and entertain, to read with expression, and to be able to communicate effectively are skills for life and are well worth learning.
"It's also a very enjoyable experience to perform at the Guildhall in front of an appreciative audience and it was a great pleasure for the audience to watch.
"We're now looking forward to the 2015 festival – the 107th!"
Honorary secretary Barbara Doar said dates had been confirmed for next year's event and said she was "confident" entries would come in.
She said: "We get blips every so often.
"People left entering very late this year and hopefully people will enter earlier next time.
"This year's event went extremely well.
"We have had some superb performances, especially the senior piano recital classes.
"We had teenagers and youngsters who were competing among adults."
A lunchtime concert featuring performances from all the festival finalists will be held on June 27 at Derby Cathedral, from 1.10pm to 1.50pm.
The 2015 Derby Arts Festival is scheduled from April 17 to May 9.
