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Awesome autumn for Brum
Motionhouse dancers Martina Bussi and Alasdair Stewart
BIRMINGHAM Weekender will bring together 200 artists and 70 companies in a free arts festival which will take over Birmingham City Centre in a Super September weekend of arts, shopping, sports and fashion. It is the weekend when the new New Street Station will be revealed unadorned and the Grand Central shopping complex will open its doors for the first time. The Rugby World Cup will already be underway with South Africa taking on Samoa at 4.45 at Villa Park on 26 September in Pool B and England hosting Wales at Twickenham at 8pm in Pool A with both matches, and all the weekend's action shown live on big screens in Eastside City Park. For the fashionistas the weekend also sees the return of Style Birmingham Live with fashion shows throughout the weekend in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s Gas Hall. Organised by Birmingham Arts Partnership and
produced by Birmingham Hippodrome, Birmingham Weekender includes world premieres, roaming and pop-up street theatre, a
musical picnic, participative events and workshops, and much more, all
animating Birmingham’s shopping and civic heart. Imagineer’s Godiva Odyssey will journey to
Birmingham for the first time. This beautiful six metre tall puppet will
awake in Birmingham through a short performance before t Surprise acrobatics, circus, street theatre and
much more in an abundance of unexpected roaming and popup performances
across the city-centre, from Grand Central, Bullring, Mailbox and
central shopping area to Brindleyplace In advance of London performances, mac birmingham
and Fierce Festival present theatre-maker and choreographer Dan Canham’s
Of Riders and Running Horses. The project, from the acclaimed
Still House, is a stirring and visceral new dance event and will be
staged in the urban setting of a car-park roof.
Roxana Silbert, Creative Director of Birmingham
Weekender, and Artistic Director of Birmingham Repertory Theatre said:
“Birmingham Weekender is a celebration of the spirit and cultural energy
of our city. “Over the three days a wealth of performance,
creativity and art found inside our much-loved arts organisations will
spill out across the civic centre, streets and shopping centres of
Birmingham for everyone to enjoy.
“This programme features world premieres and
innovative work that has originated here in Birmingham alongside
international performances. It will be packed with street theatre,
outdoor performances and an amazing line-up including music, dance,
visual arts, food and a dedicated family programme. “For audiences it will be a real adventure. We
want this weekend to demonstrate the ambition, creativity and the
incredible collaboration between the city’s arts organisations both
large and small. Each day of the weekend offers wonderfully
life-enriching experiences and we hope people visiting, or simply
stumbling across the Birmingham Weekender, take the chance to savour
this moment.” Birmingham Weekender opens in the afternoon on Birmingham Hippodrome is no stranger to
presenting large-scale outdoor works, and during Birmingham Weekender,
their presentation of Maudits Sonnants by Compagnie Transe Express will
reach new heights as a huge crane suspends a musical chandelier full of
awe-inspiring acrobatic musicians above Centenary Square (25 & 26
September). Luminous, a third new commission for the festival
with Birmingham Repertory Theatre in association with Mem Morrison
Company. The promenade performance will take place in the Alpha Tower
area and invites audiences to discover the unknown amongst the familiar
through a series of intimate performances and installations. Corey Baker Dance will entertain audiences with
Kapa Haka Tale, a new commission for the festival that will transport
audiences to an ancient world of the Maori art form.
Participative opportunities thread throughout the
festival weekend and audiences will have the opportunity to take part in
Haka performance workshops. Strictly Night Cycling, a new commission for the
weekender, is an entertaining street show, combined with a
light-hearted, road safety message to light up and be seen on bikes
after dark. Birmingham’s Centenary, Victoria and Oozells
Squares will be hubs of cultural activities for all the family all day
and through the evening of Saturday and Sunday. The year is also a dual
year of UK and Mexico, so it’s fitting that Eye Candy: Mexican Día
de Muertos Block Party will celebrate Mexican culture through a range of
activities including large skull painting, veil and headband making,
lucha libre wrestlers and mask making. Birmingham Repertory Theatre will throw open its
doors to allow everyone to see behind-the-scenes, and activities for
young people and families continue with Toy Theatre Project where
children aged 7-12 will work with an independent playwright to create
plays for a toy theatre in a 90 minute workshop. Children will become
directors, stage managers or sound operators as they rehearse
professional actors into the roles they’ve created. Birmingham Weekender will shake things up by
placing arts organisations, their work and exhibitions, in unusual
settings. Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery’s Exhibitionist asks
festival volunteers and stewards to keep small museum items in their
pockets and ask members of the public to engage in a unique, one-to-one
discovery experiences. The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra will
take up residency at the newly-refurbished Mailbox, captivating shoppers
and passers-by. On Saturday 26 September, visitors to the city can
experience Birmingham Royal Ballet Swanning around Birmingham as the
UK’s premiere touring ballet company prepares for its autumn
performances of Swan Lake. Shoppers can pause from the hustle and bustle for
a while and listen to the beautiful
Requiem as a soloist from Birmingham Contemporary Music Group performs
in a shop window, with the sounds of the haunting musical composition
echoing around
while the Town Hall Symphony Hall’s Musical Picnic in
Victoria Square will showcase an impressive range of
musical styles in an all-day festival atmosphere. There will also
presentations from The Drum, Birmingham Opera Company and DanceXchange. Ikon meanwhile will offer a rare insight into a unique cultural experience with Berending Kumpo, an extraordinary spirit-based live show with performers from Gambia, West Africa. The official trailer for Birmingham Weekender Kumpo is a masquerade figure
who mysteriously appears and disappears and scares away malevolent
spirits. Artefacts representing Kumpo feature in Ikon’s At Home with
Vanley Burke exhibition (closes 27 September). Visitors can sketch their way through the city
with mac birmingham and Open Draw, a free-moving ‘sketchcrawl’.
Kooky roaming music and street theatre will entertain shoppers and
visitors to the city and there will be plenty of opportunities for
people to exercise their own creativity, with a Culture Catwalk and
workshops with, amongst others, Writing West Midlands. A host of food, shopping and sports activity
complements the arts and entertainment of Birmingham Weekender. The best
street food from the region with a wide range of international cuisine
will be on offer in
Centenary and Victoria square and a special Caribbean barbeque at Opus
Café in Oozells Square will complement the cultural offering in and
around Brindleyplace. Birmingham expects tens of thousands of visitors across the weekend as people visit the city for Rugby World Cup matches and to experience the newly transformed New Street Station and Grand Central shopping centre and Birmingham Weekender will add art and culture to entertain the crowds and provide a showcase for art and talent in the city. Full Birmingham Weekender programme details and
listings will be released in August on
www.birminghamweekender.com and in the Weekender brochure, which
will be widely distributed around the city. It is envisaged it will be necessary to pre-book
a small number of events due to limited spaces available, please check
the website for more details. Follow @BhamWeekender, like
www.facebook.com/BhamWeekender share your photographs via
www.instagram.com/bhamweekender #BhamWE
For further information on events taking place in
the region this autumn, look up the
Visit Birmingham website. |
25 – 27 September 2015 
aking a stroll
to explore her new landscape, greeting and meeting audiences and
visitors to the city along her mechanical way 
Friday 25 September, with performances in and around Centenary Square
and Fierce
Festival's first presentation of Of Riders and Running Horses.