3.6.2

Original Document

The city centre is also host to a variety of cultural events, most notably the International Jazz Festival, ArtsFest, the St. Patrick’s Day parade, the St. George’s party, Birmingham Pride, the Birmingham Carnival and a number of other multicultural events. The Council’s cultural strategy promotes ‘Culture at Heart’, supporting culture in the city centre.

Plain English Translation

The city centre is also host to a variety of events, most notably the International Jazz Festival, ArtsFest, the St. Patrick’s Day parade, the St. George’s party, Birmingham Pride, the Birmingham Carnival. The Council’s cultural strategy promotes waht we call ‘Culture at Heart’,  culture in the city centre.

3 comments

  1. nicklockey February 2nd, 2009 at 1:44 am

    It's brilliant that we have so many cultural events and festivals happening in the city throughout the year but are we spreading ourselves too thin? Wouldn't it be better to combine them into one or two longer-running major events which utilise the whole of the city on the scale of the Manchester international festival which garners more international attention and creates a bigger impact for the city?

  2. nicklockey February 2nd, 2009 at 1:46 am

    Oh and can we bring back a proper Birmingham film festival too? This used to be really brilliant and surely a city of our size deserves one?

  3. Anoneemouse February 2nd, 2009 at 12:15 pm

    Disagree with your first point Nick. I think the beauty of Birmingham's range of festivals is that there can be major cultural activity happening for more of the year, and it's specialist. The problem with festivals like th MIF and EIF is that they rely on mainly bought in blockbuster events, and you miss some of the really interesting niche events or risky and alternative things. Some of the city's best festivals, like Capsule's Supersonic, International Dance Festival Birmingham etc do have truly international reputations for excellence in their particular area of expertise. We should celebrate the breadth and range of exceptionally high quality arts activity which happens in the city.
    For me, Artsfest is too big, too random and the odd gem just gets lost in a sea of other mediocre events.

Last edited on 5 January 2009; This entry is filed under 3 City centre activities - the issues, 3.6 Culture, sport and leisure.
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