Plans for Birmingham Festival 23 announced
Birmingham City Council has unveiled plans for Birmingham Festival 23 to mark the one year anniversary of the Commonwealth Games, celebrating the city’s creativity, as a sign of its ongoing commitment to funding culture.
Commissioned and supported by Birmingham City Council, the Festival will take place in Centenary Square with a 10 day programme of free events that showcase the City’s rich cultural offer, which will be announced in June. Birmingham Festival 23 will be delivered by the team behind the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Festival, including Outdoor Places Unusual Spaces (OPUS) and JA Productions, led by Creative Director Raidene Carter and Executive Director Will Mauchline, and with programme partners including SAMPAD, Fabric, ACE Dance & Music, and United By 2022 Legacy Charity. Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight CBE, and former gold-medal winning Team England Netball Captain, Ama Agbeze today are announced as Patrons of the festival, signifying the city’s cultural and sporting ambitions.
Proudly outdoors and free to access, the Festival will echo the city-centre experience of the Games, taking over Centenary Square with live music and performance, creative and participatory activities, and big-screen content to conjure the shared experiences, magic and memories of the summer of ‘22. The Festival also serves to celebrate the city’s rich cultural offer through programming committed to diversity, inclusion and homegrown talent.
Across 10 days and 9 evenings from Friday 28 July – Sunday 6 August, Birmingham Festival 23 will welcome audiences, artists, local communities and volunteers, reflecting the diversity of the city, to come together to watch, listen, relax, dance and play.
It will be a joyous, fun and heartfelt homage to our big summer of sport and culture, and another bold showcase of Birmingham’s talent, character and reputation as a world-class destination for major events.
