Birmingham hosts an inaugural Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival at the renowned Red Brick Market

The Red Brick Market in Birmingham city centre is hosting its first Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival on 26 March 2022.

The market, based on Floodgate Street in Digbeth, is an independent indoor market hosting a range of stores to offer a unique shopping experience.

On 26 March 2022, the market will offer an immersive experience of Japanese culture offering a range of performances and activities for everyone to enjoy.

When and where is the festival?

The Japanese Festival is located in the Red Brick Market on Floodgate street in Digbeth. The festival takes place from 10am to 4pm on Saturday 26 March 2022 and has free admission for anyone to come along.

What will the festival have?

Several authentic Japanese craft workshops and demonstrations will be held on the day, including a retro Kimono pop-up kimono shop, a make and take origami haiku poetry with a resident poet Mr Blue and a moss plant workshop.

Japanese food and drink will also be available at the Briste Coffee Shop for the day, sponsored by the newly opened Shibuya Underground bar serving sake and restaurants  Tokyo Izakaya and BA-HA vegan will be offering food throughout the day.

The festival has free entry and a number of free activities, however some are charged, so bringing a range of cash and card will help ensure you get the best experience possible.

Why was the festival created?

Katie Becker, co-organiser of the Japanese Cherry Blossom Festival owns Japan Crafts and co-owners Retro kimono with her partner. She said: “We originally had the idea for this event because there is eight different shops in the market that have got a Japanese theme so we thought we would do a Cherry blossom event and some craft workshops.

“In Birmingham there is quite a large Chinese community but we don’t hear a lot about Japanese events happening around here. There’s lots of restaurants and bars but there is not a lot of cultural activity.

“So hopefully this festival will be the first of many events, offshoots and connections with the Japanese community.

Grumpy, co-organiser of the festival and owner of Grumpy Daruma said: “We’re absolutely excited for this event. This is the first one, I think, in Birmingham on this scale. A bit nervous but excited and hopefully we’ll get a good turn out and that everyone who visits has a really good time. We’ve only had six weeks to plan this, it was supposed to be a really small event in the market and it’s just grown.”

A message from the editor:

Thank you for reading. BirminghamWorld is Birmingham’s latest news website, championing everything that is great about our city - reporting on news, lifestyle and sport. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram, and keep the conversation going.