EASTERN European young musicians have serenaded people taking part in an ancient civic ceremony.

The Tiszafred Youth Wind Band, from Hungary, are visiting Durham City as part of an exchange programme.

This week, the band performed outside Durham Town Hall where the annual Mayoress at Home event was taking place.

Hundreds of people, many from local organisations, took up the invitation to take tea with Mayoress Margaret Gibbon.

Her husband, Ray, from Witton Gilbert, is the city's first Liberal Democrat Mayor following his party's landslide election victory over Labour.

Councillor Gibbon said: "The Mayor takes second place today. I'm the 401st Mayor and the tradition goes back to the old days when the high-ups rarely mixed with ordinary people.

"Today, anybody has the absolute right to come in and see the Mayoress. It is a very big social occasion.''

The Hungarians are from County Durham's partner region of Jasz-Nagykun-Szolnok and have been playing concerts in the region, including one with Framwellgate School's choir and brass band.

They return home at the weekend when the Framwellgate musicians will fly out to Hungary for a 12-day stay that will include several concert performances.