Brand new six-month festival to shine a global spotlight on creativity in the West Midlands
Photo credit: Iain Jamieson
A brand new £12 million festival, shining a spotlight on creativity and culture in the West Midlands, will run from March-September 2022, as part of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Opening with a free spectacular large scale production in Centenary Square, the festival will feature hundreds of creative commissions across the region including art, photography, dance, theatre, digital art and more.
The Birmingham 2022 Festival will open with Wondrous Stories, a spectacular large-scale production by world renowned and Leamington Spa based dance-circus company, Motionhouse. Wondrous Stories will be created and directed by Kevin Finnan MBE, Artistic Director of Motionhouse. To create the show, Finnan has pulled together an exciting team of artistic collaborators including Birmingham-based choreographers Sonia Sabri and Jamaal Burkmar, composer Sophy Smith and digital artists Logela Multimedia.
Wondrous Stories will transform Birmingham’s Centenary Square with an extraordinary production featuring a giant aerial spectacle with a flying book and a colossal globe alongside innovative digital projections. Motionhouse’s professional dancers will be accompanied by local choirs and a community cast of over 300 from the Birmingham 2022 Festival Critical Mass participation project.
There will be seven performances of Wondrous Stories from Thursday 17 - Sunday 20 March 2022, with expected combined audiences of over 80,000 people both in person and watching via live stream.
Chief Creative Officer at Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, Martin Green, said: “Today, we are thrilled to officially announce the Birmingham 2022 Festival, shining a spotlight on the incredible creativity in the West Midlands. This spectacular festival will feature over 300 brand-new creative works, providing essential funding direct to artists and thousands of participatory moments for audiences with art, dance, theatre on their doorstep. I couldn’t think of a better way to begin than with Motionhouse’s awe-inspiring spectacle which will be free for everyone to enjoy.”
The full programme for Birmingham 2022 Festival will be launched in January, for the latest information and to be amongst the first to find out more sign up here.
