THIS Sunday, Middlesbrough Town Centre is the only European location to play host to Unsilent Night, part of the Winter Lights procession, which is US composer Phil Kline’s 30-city Post- Modern Christmas concept.

New York, Cologne, Sydney and San Francisco are among those asking hundreds to gather and play the same recorded piece of music on good old-fashioned boomboxes, starting at 4pm in Central Square.

Kline says: “Every year since 1992 I’ve presented Unsilent Night, an outdoor ambient music piece for an infinite number of boomboxes. It’s like a Christmas caroling party except that we don’t sing, but rather carry the music, each of us playing a separate track that is a “voice” in the piece. In effect, we become a cityblock- long sound system.”

Join us and bring a boombox, or anything that will blast a cassette, CD or Mp3. (cassettes sound the coolest, but we realize cassette players are getting scarce now.) The more tracks we play, the bigger and more amazing the sound is. In recent years, Unsilent Nights in New York and San Francisco have attracted crowds of over a thousand people, with hundreds of boomboxes. It’s spectacular.

“If you’d like to participate, please email the contact listed for your city for instructions. If you’d like to participate but don’t have a boombox or a music player with speakers, you can just show up and join the parade. Everyone is an important part of the procession.

Help us make a Big (and joyful) noise. This is always a free event and all ages are welcome.”

Mary Carole McCauley of the Baltimore Sun adds: “It’s a 44- minute exercise in musical democracy and Christmas cheer. It’s a tradition for our times, a modern twist on strolling minstrels and carolling parties. It’s an ethereal yuletide composition performed on upward of 50 synchronized boomboxes.”

If you have any questions, contact Rob Guest on 01642-729135 or email: rob_guest@middlesbrough.gov.uk