A North-East music venue celebrates its first anniversary today.

The Sage Gateshead opened on December 17 last year to crowds waiting to catch a glimpse inside the £70m Foster and Partners building.

The opening celebrations carried on until 10pm on December 19 with 15 back-to-back sessions featuring performances in all the parts of the building and opportunities for music making.

It meant that 15,000 people were able to say they took part in The Sage Gateshead's opening.

During its first year it has played host to 438 performances and 12,319 learning and participation sessions and welcomed about 750,000 visitors.

General director Anthony Sargent said: "It seems hard to believe this weekend marks the first anniversary of the opening of The Sage Gateshead.

"Our local communities have been an absolutely key part of that adventure, making a tremendous journey of musical discovery with us.

"We are all looking forward to welcoming them back to share more new musical experiences here in 2006."

A year after opening, The Sage Gateshead is celebrating an eventful 12 months having been visited by musical talents including The Vienna Philharmonic, James Brown, David Crosby and Graham Nash, Robert Plant, Ibrahim Ferrer, James Blunt, Jandek, Maximo Park and Nick Cave.

As well as musical firsts, the Labour Party and the National Union of Teachers have used the building for conferences.

It was officially opened by the Queen and Prince Philip on October 14.