Birmingham Weekender – the free festival produced by Birmingham Hippodrome and in partnership with Bullring – will return for the August Bank Holiday.
Performances, installations and pop-up experiences will take over the city from Saturday August 29 to Monday August 31. There are set to be new commissions from a host of regional, national and international companies.
Events are spread across city centre streets, in squares and shopping centres and even in the sky above the city.
They include:
New Street Station will come alive with dance, movement and spectacle as visitors encounter Otempodiz by Ertza Dance, an energetic performance blending powerful physicality with driving rhythms, alongside surprise flash mobs from Marshon Dance Company.
Birmingham’s biggest city centre open-air disco, Mirror Bull City, will light up Rotunda Square with DJs, dancing and mirror balls. Daily takeovers include Always K-Pop hosted by internationally renowned DJ Emkay and Digbeth’s much-loved The Night Owl spinning soul, Motown, disco and northern soul classics.
The programme will close with a Mostly Jazz, Funk & Soul takeover with a headline set from legendary DJ, broadcaster and musician Huey Morgan, bringing an eclectic soundtrack spanning jazz, funk, soul and disco.
Victoria Square will be transformed into a vibrant hub of live music, creativity and family fun. Young Creatives Takeover @ 0121 Stage will showcase the region’s most exciting artists, while The Ideas Factory by HSBC UK invites younger audiences to dream big, get creative and bring their ideas to life.
Visitors can experience ElevateHer – a striking aerial performance across three multi-height tightwire rigs by female-led circus company Daughters of the Wire – as well as street food, free face painting and family-friendly activities throughout the weekend.
Inside Bullring, an exciting programme of world-class dance awaits, including ballet showcases from Birmingham Royal Ballet, inclusive workshops and performance takeovers from Propel Dance, and a newly created performance brought to Birmingham by São Paulo Dance Company and performed by a talented group of emerging young dancers.
Talawa Theatre Company’s powerful Fragments of Us, and spoken word from Birmingham Weekender’s Poet in Residence, Zakariye will perform across the weekend.
Audiences can also enjoy a special performance from City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, as its musical takeover, CBSO in the City, reaches a spectacular finale, with up to seventy musicians performing orchestral favourites.
The Weekender Green Hub in Chaophraya Square invites visitors to discover how small actions can make a big difference with a pop-up pocket garden, supported by local environmental and community organisations. Audiences can also experience Walk of the Dandelion, an enchanting large-scale puppet performance by Luke Brown Dance Company.
For those seeking quieter moments, St Martin’s Square offers space for reflection withI Have No Nameby El Conde de Torrefiel, an immersive audio-visual installation encouraging people to pause and observe.
At 1000 Trades Square, audiences can enjoy performances inspired by traditions from across the world, including GARBHby Shyam Dattani and Mira Salat, celebrating Gujarati folk dance, and Kismat Walla by Thingumajig Theatre, a charming puppet production inspired by South Asian market culture.