The youngsters got the front row seats and then some when the Sultans of Swing put on a kid-oriented show as part of the Coldsnap music festival now underway throughout Prince George.
The foursome grew to as large as a baker's dozen as toddlers to 12-year-olds were handed anything from African drums to serrated sticks and given a chance to form a massive rhythm section.
They danced and wriggled, clapped and sang and just had a good time as the group put the emphasis on participation during a Saturday afternoon gig that drew more than 100 parents and young ones to the Connaught Youth Centre.
The group, consisting of Chris McKhool, Drew Birston, Kevin Laliberte and Chendy Leon on this visit, puts on about 100 shows for children each year in addition to the ones for the older set. The parents got a Sultans of String show of their own later Saturday night at Artspace.
McKhool, who plays the fiddle and was the lead singer, is a big believer in instilling the love of music at a young age.
"Sometimes you might have a music teacher who can make it feel more like work, so our job is to show the opposite side," he said. "To show that after you've done the hard work, what you can do with it.
"You can have this musical celebration, this wonderful thing to share with people."
There's no time like the present to get started.
"Get your hands on an instrument right away," said McKhool, who's also performed on children's TV shows Treehouse and Mr. Dress Up. "Anything you can, it doesn't matter if it's a good instrument or a junky instrument, you can make almost anything sound good if you put some love into it."
On that note, they even carted out a piece of luggage to use as a drum at one point during the show.
"Get you hands on a penny whistle, recorder, ukelele, pots and pans," McKhool continued. "It's amazing what you can do when you put your mind to it."
Not everyone will grow up to become a musician but there are other benefits.
"Every study anyone has ever done shows kids who do music at school do better in all their other subjects," McKhool said. "Math, science, language. It's because it opens up different parts of your brain, it allow you to use more of your brain, it helps your brain to make all of those connections."
