The format of the event is such that it merges several small local bands sets into a bigger unit (10- 60 musicians) so that they can be introduced to the experience of performing as part of a big band environment and the honour of sharing the stage with some of the world’s leading musicians. This integration of local talent would create the ideal platform for transferring skills and developing the arts in South Africa, creating job opportunities for locals. The project will allow the re-arrangement of small local bands into the big band format of local origin in each band who would have appreciated and acquired vast amounts of knowledge from their careers. The band’s main structure would be comprised of young upcoming, recently completed studies artists to encourage the skills transfers through the performance with established veterans alongside them. Various styles of genres, such as kwaito, maskandi, gospel, hip-hop etc., would be integrated into a creative potpourri of sounds with originality that could only advance the future evaluation of musical talent on a worldwide stage. Before the public live performances, we will identify the songs of the headline artists and produce the musical scores for each participating musician. The charts will be distributed to the supporting band for the rehearsals to be organized over a 2- week period. The line-up is augmented by a component of leading Jazz musicians in a big band format, including collaborations with a host of local household names. The festival is also an ideal platform for delivering indigenous South African music genres to a world audience and is destined to play a critical role in internationalisation. The public performances will take place after the rehearsals and workshops. The concept of the Big Band is a brand new format of live performances in South Africa and offers new artists to become part of a new recorded production that will be offered commercially with part of the proceeds paid to them as fees for their contribution. The integration of local music into international sounds includes the creation of newly scored music for the performance, and it also assists local artists whose music had never been scored to become available in a format to perform worldwide, an innovation in the quest to internationalise our local music. Talent continues to emerge from disadvantaged communities, but opportunities to develop and nurture that talent into long-term economically beneficial occupations remain scarce and out of reach for many young aspirant musicians from these backgrounds, forcing many such artists to abandon their dreams in favour of pursuing what appears to be more realistic goals in the quest for self-sustaining career opportunities, by entering the already oversubscribed 9-5 job market instead, and in extreme cases succumb to the lure of crime. Through this initiative, we will catapult the budding talent battling to find avenues for self-expression into the forefront, thereby deepening social integration.