Kicking off on Friday 28 July from 6pm with the opening event One City, A Thousand
\nMemories, Birmingham Festival 23 is now just 1 week away! The full programme of events for\u00a0the FREE 10-day festival which takes place from 28 July – 6 August in Centenary Square can be found here.<\/p>\n
Programme Latest<\/strong> Legendary, world record-holding, Olympic and Commonwealth hurdler Colin Jackson CBE is Grime artist C4 will be the guest MC for GrimeBoy, the Rep\u2019s Twilight Takeover on Tuesday 1\u00a0August. A BBC Radio 1xtra regular, C4 is a high-energy, Birmingham-born grime performer; he\u2019ll\u00a0bring his unique style to the Birmingham Festival 23 stage for a special set to close the night.<\/p>\n On Thursday 3 August, DJ Danny Byrd of Hospital Records will join Drum n Bounce for a And on Saturday 29 July, Barcelona-based Kamch\u00e0tka Street Theatre Company, an On Sunday 6 August, local legend Ginny Lemon will host our Schools Out Disco Party, Host Line-Up Confirmed<\/strong> More Access<\/strong> Headsets are available for pick-up and return near the Accessible Viewing Area. There will be\u00a0limited general seating options, but a designated Accessible Viewing Area will be made Our\u00a0Volunteers will be happy to show you to this area. The BSL Video, and all access related\u00a0information is available on the Festival\u2019s website Access page, here.<\/p>\n More Partners!<\/strong> Overview<\/strong> Commissioned and supported by Birmingham City Council to celebrate the city\u2019s creativity, Arts\u00a0Council England and University of Birmingham were previously announced as Principle Kicking off on Friday 28 July from 6pm with the opening event One City, A Thousand Memories, Birmingham Festival 23 is now just 1 week away! The full programme of events for\u00a0the FREE 10-day festival which takes place from 28 July – 6 August in Centenary Square can be found here. Programme Latest We\u2019re delighted […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,53,37,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-latest","category-local-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64497,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64495\/revisions\/64497"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theasiantoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWe\u2019re delighted to confirm even more talent to our already packed programme:<\/p>\n
\nour special guest for the Commonwealth Collective Celebration on 31 July. Colin played an
\nactive role in the volunteer journey last year and is back to show his support. Our host for the\u00a0day will be DJ and compere Tammy Gooding – voice of BRMB, Smooth and BBC WM for
\nmany years before joining BBC Radio Hereford and Worcester. Party tunes will be provided by\u00a06 Music Funk n Soul Show favourite DJ Sam Redmore who\u2019ll spin Funk, Soul and Disco
\nClassics to round off the celebration.<\/p>\n
\nPower Hour special, bringing a live mix of Jungle and Drum n Bass.
\nMore street-theatre will feature in the Festival, including, on Tuesday 1 August, Teabreak –
\nCatch your breath and enjoy a free, freshly made brew from a Tuk-Tuk in this heart-warming\u00a0new show by Trigger, the company who brought the spectacular PoliNations to Victoria Square\u00a0last summer;<\/p>\n
\nInternational artist collective who\u2019ll wander the city-centre with their naive and curious
\ncharacters.<\/p>\n
\nbringing everyone together to kick off the festival’s final day in a joyous cabaret. They\u2019ll be
\njoined by friends Alana Boden, Blu Romantic and Kenya Knott. Sign their Festival Leavers
\nshirts (markers provided!) for this fun last-day-of-school throw-back for our closing day.<\/p>\n
\nThe Festival will be hosted by a range of established and new compere talent across the ten
\ndays. In addition to Ayo Akinlowere and Kaylee Golding who\u2019ll shepherd our opening event,
\nand Tammy Gooding on Monday 31, the following presenters will feature: comedian and social\u00a0media star Smash Bengali, and Dharmesh Rashput and Jaya Khazaei (SAMPAD Takeover\u00a0Sat 29 July); performer and poet Raza Hussain (FABRIC Takeover Sun 30 July); Amplify\u00a0Sound\u2019s Alexandria Carr, Tee Cee and Priya Matharu. Jasmine Takhar will lead BBC Asian\u00a0Network\u2019s takeover on Friday 4 August and \u2018Mr Birmingham\u2019 Phil Oldershaw will feature on our\u00a0closing day alongside Artistic Associate Elizabeth \u2018Zeddie\u2019 Lawal for the wrap.<\/p>\n
\nThe Festival has created a new BSL-guided video to help D\/deaf and disabled people navigate\u00a0their way from New St Station to Centenary Square. The Festival\u2019s spoken sections will be BSL\u00a0interpreted on stage and on screen. Pre-recorded films will also be captioned. For audiences\u00a0with a visual impairment, we have Live Audio Description available throughout the Festival.<\/p>\n
\navailable for wheelchair users and those who are unable to stand for a long period of time.<\/p>\n
\nUnited by 2022 is Birmingham Festival 23\u2019s Volunteer Partner, enabling Festival 23 to harness\u00a0the spirit of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games’ Volunteers, using the Volunteers\u00a0Collective portal which connects volunteers to opportunities within the West Midlands. The same\u00a0team at United by 2022 have also supported the Festival\u2019s Have-a-Go Zone where audiences\u00a0can try out their skills in cricket, squash, lawn bowls and other sports.\u00a0Chiltern Railways, Cross Country, National Express West Midlands, West Midlands Metro\u00a0and West Midlands Railway are providing free travel to all volunteers.
\nGowling WLG is supporting Perry’s Party Picnic which will take place at midday from July 29
\n\u2013 August 5. Perry, the popular 2022 mascot, will be welcoming special guests each day, from\u00a0all-female Dhol drumming and dancers of Eternal Taal to a Circus Party featuring talented\u00a0acrobats, jugglers, hula hoopers, and hilarious comedians. Through our support the Festival\u00a0organisers and Birmingham City Council are working to identify groups within Birmingham to be\u00a0given vouchers to swap for free Perry picnic boxes to ensure Perry’s Picnic can be enjoyed by\u00a0all. Find out more here.<\/p>\n
\nThe packed programme will run daily from 11am – 9pm* catering to all ages and interests, each\u00a0day beginning with welcoming participatory activities, including a regular morning slot hosted by\u00a0Games Mascot Perry. Back-to-back live and on screen performances throughout each day\u00a0including projects commissioned through the Made In Brum open call; and each evening a\u00a0strand under the umbrella title Twilight Takeovers will feature new partnerships, collectives and\u00a0artists creatively collaborating to bring each day to a fabulous close. The 6pm Power Hour sees\u00a0a range of fun workouts and easy-to-follow classes that you can make the most of in that\u00a0post-work diversion from the gym. With almost 100 hours of FREE music, dance and\u00a0performances and just 1 week to go til it starts, Birmingham Festival 23 looks forward to\u00a0welcoming thousands of audiences, artists, local communities and volunteers, reflecting the\u00a0diversity of the city, to come together to watch, listen, relax, dance and play. It will be a joyous,\u00a0fun and heartfelt celebration to mark the one year anniversary of the Commonwealth Games in\u00a02022, and is another bold showcase of Birmingham\u2019s talent, character and reputation as a\u00a0world-class destination for major events.<\/p>\n
\nPartners and Hollywood Monster as Presenting Partner.\u00a0Steven Knight CBE, and former gold-medal winning Team England Netball Captain, Ama Agbeze,\u00a0are Patrons of the Festival, signifying the city\u2019s cultural and sporting ambitions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"