Excitement is mounting as children prepare for a mass seaside singalong.

More than 4,000 pupils will assemble on Brighton beach to record a song commissioned to mark the launch of the 40th Brighton Festival on Saturday.

The music for City By the Sea has been written by Mark Chadwick and Matt Savage from Brighton band The Levellers, with words provided by Olivier award-winning West End lyricist Stephen Clarke.

It is a song celebrating life in our city, which thousands of Year Three pupils from dozens of schools have been memorising over the last four weeks.

The seven and eight-year-olds will perform it after the Children's Parade, which has the theme of world cuisine.

An Argus photographer will be in a helicopter taking bird's-eye view snaps of the crowds. These will be printed, along with pictures of the procession, in an eight-page supplement and picture spread in The Argus on Monday.

Two performances of the song conducted by actress Patsy Palmer and presenter Zoe Ball will be recorded at noon and 1pm, with about 2,000 children singing in each.

The two recordings will be merged into one song, which will be produced on CD along with an original recorded by The Levellers earlier this year and an instrumental version.

The CD can be obtained by collecting three tokens, which will be printed in The Argus from Monday, and presenting them at selected Sussex Stationers shops to be confirmed.

Nicola Spencer, Year Three teacher at Westdene Primary School, said her pupils could not wait for Saturday.

She said: "The children are very excited that a song has been written specially for them about their city.

"It's really fun and the lyrics have been quite easy for them to learn as they are all about Brighton."

Brighton-based community arts organisation Same Sky runs the parade and has co-ordinated the singalong.

Children got to meet The Levellers at a January workshop where the song was unveiled.

Same Sky also helped the pupils prepare costumes to wear.

Ms Spencer, 28, said: "We have chosen Brighton seafood as our theme. The children have fish hats and we have made a giant fisherman to carry."