Birmingham Festival 23 launches with a splash - here’s what to expect in pictures

The party is set to return in Birmingham with the festival that is continuing the legacy of Commonwealth Games 2022.

Just like last year, Birmingham’s city centre will be transformed next month with a vibrant and free festival that has something for everybody. Birmingham Festival 23 is intended as a showcase of “Birmingham’s talent, character and reputation as a world-class destination for major events.”

Titled One City, A Thousand Memories, Birmingham Festival 23 announced the full programme of events for the 10 day event - taking place in Centenary Square from July 28 to August - today (June 28). Once it gets underway the city centre will be packed on weekdays and weekends with amazing performances and activities for people of all ages and abilities.

Talented Brummie and Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and gold-medal winning former Team England Netball Captain Ama Agbeze have backed the festival.

Birmingham Festival 2023 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.

We caught up with her at the Birmingham Festival 2023 launch. Creative director of Birmingham Festival 2023 Raidene Carter told BirminghamWorld: “The culture in Birmingham is really hard to define or put in a box. When you look at what we look like as a city - we come from all different places. We are not just one thing so we had to make sure that the programme reflected that. As long as the artists look and sound like the city, we didn’t have to worry about a programme that really reflects Birmingham.”

Local talent will take the centrestage and amateur performers will share the same spaces as professionals. Brummies will get the best of the many local flavours. Since the festival is all about the legacy of the Commonwealth Games, the programme highlights cultures from the 56 commonwealth countries and the regions they are from.

Mukhtar Dar, Artistic Associate at Birmingham Festival 23, said: “Communities and groups that were invisible before I was really keen to make sure that they are represented here. One of the key communities is the Kashmiri community - one of the largest single community in Birmingham. This time, we proactively reached out to them.”

The launch of the festival at Library of Birmingham today (Wednesday June 28) was a glimpse of what is to come in one month.

Here are nine brilliant photos from the Birmingham Festival 23 launch: