Arts Council England welcomes Simmer Down Festival in Handsworth Park, Birmingham, to portfolio

Well, 2022 has been a great year for Simmer Down Arts (SDA) which kicked off by revealing a mural celebrating Birmingham’s ‘reggae royalty” in March.

Now the festival is delighted to become part of the Arts Council England’s National Portfolio of Organisations (NPO) for 2023-2026.

Rooted in North Birmingham, Simmer Down Arts has for over 12 years delivered an engaging year-round programme of artist commissions, talent development, young people and community participation projects, all of which feed into the much-loved annual Simmer Down Festival in Handsworth Park.

The festival returned in-person for the first time since Covid-19 this year. Featuring performances from Third World, Odyssey and many more.

Mukhtar Dar, Artistic Director of Simmer Down Arts said: “SDA is an artist-led organisation with an eclectic festival and year-round programme that engages artists and participants internationally, nationally and locally.

“Its unique contribution to the ACE Lets Create strategy is its reach into marginalised working-class communities through the celebration of reggae music and its essential messages of ‘Peace love and Unity’-  which are needed more than ever in these difficult and testing times.

“It’s hugely encouraging to see this investment in the work of SDA and into the City of Birmingham, whose reggae pioneers have contributed to Birmingham’s reputation as an international City of culture.

“There are exciting times ahead and we thank our artists, audiences, and advocates who continue to support and champion us.”

Peter Knott, Area Director for Arts Council England said: “Festivals and live music are a fantastic way to bring people together, encourage partnerships and instil civic pride, and we’re delighted to be welcoming Simmer Down to the portfolio.

“Their work offers great opportunities for people from across the West Midlands and beyond to discover new music together."

Simmer Down moved to Zellig in Digbeth, in April 2022, ahead of this year’s festival in July.  Operations Director Alex Williams said: “It’s really helped us being based here in such a creative hub. With a festival you have a lot of equipment to store but also need office space, Zellig had the perfect space for us.

“We’ve also found Zellig really looks after their tenants not just financially but also they care about us. We are not just a commodity to them, that’s important. Now we have NPO status we’ll be staying here + if we needed to scale up we could do it here as they have lots of different sized offices.”

Simmer Down Festival will be returning to Handsworth Park in July 2023 with initial announcements expected in January.