A groundbreaking Birmingham festival makes a welcome return this month, taking place across a wide range of venues - from tattoo studios to libraries, from pubs to undertakers, and from country parks to art galleries.

Organised by city-based and volunteer-led community-interest company BrumYODO, A Matter Of Life And Death features author talks, walks, art installations, poetry workshops and discussions across Birmingham and the wider West Midlands.

The aim of the festival is to create safe spaces to think and talk about death and dying. BrumYODO has been running the event since 2016, and board member Helen Tomblin is pleased that the 2025 edition will be offering plenty for people to get involved with: “This year’s festival hosts some regular events, such as a tour of an undertakers, a death-related walk, an interfaith walk, an author event, and numerous Death Cafes and In Memory events. But also this year, new venues and contributors have joined the festival.

These include Lucky Rabbit Tattoo Studio and the Lickey Hills Country Park. We’re really pleased to be offering a discussion on memorial tattoos and writing poetry in the Lickey Hills. And we’re also really excited to bring many of our collaborators and creative arts together to culminate the festival in a Pop-Up Death event at Birmingham Library.”

The programme kicks off with an annual festival favourite: a Death Cafe at The Sun Rising Burial Ground near Warwick, on Tuesday 6 May.  Then, that evening, Birmingham undertakers A Natural Undertaking open up their new premises in Hall Green for Making Uncomfortable Conversations More Comfortable - an informal discussion, over cheese and wine, led by Evolve & Flourish’s Suzanne McArthur.

On Wednesday the 7th, the festival hosts an exploration of memorial tattoos and an interfaith walk in Handsworth, while an event on Thursday the 8th takes a look at rituals and practices within diverse faiths following death and bereavement.

In conjunction with The Heath Bookshop, Mary Stevens Hospice and No Barriers Here, the festival also features a talk in Stourbridge (Friday the 9th) by end-of-life care specialist Kathryn Mannix, the bestselling author of With The End In Mind. Demand for the event has proved to be so high that a second talk has now been scheduled for the same day.

Saturday the 10th sees the festival hosting its walking events. In the morning, BrumYODO joins forces with Kevin Thomas, who will lead a guided tour entitled Five Ways To Die In Birmingham. And that afternoon, former Birmingham Poet Laureate Giovanni Esposito - aka, Spoz - and poet & therapeutic writing practitioner Holly Winter-Hughes will be leading a wellbeing walk Up The Lickey Hills.

An always-popular event - this year taking place on Tuesday the 13th - is Meet The Undertakers, providing an opportunity not only to tour the premises of Kings Heath-based company A Natural Undertaking but also to ask any questions about ‘end of life’ which you may have been dying to ask (if you’ll pardon our pun).

The following day (Wednesday the 14th) sees Northfield’s Navigation Inn hosting To Absent Friends, an informal evening event during which people can enjoy a drink and a meal while sharing stories about loved ones who have died.

As mentioned previously, the festival will be brought to a close by a brand-new Pop-Up Death event at Birmingham Library (Saturday 17 May). Exploring life and death through creativity, the open-to-all-ages get-together features numerous imaginative activities designed to explore the often-taboo subject of death and dying. Highlights include coffin-designing and a special Jukebox Challenge.

“The festival features so many very different events,” says Emma Waterford, BrumYODO board member & creative practitioner. “We hope we have something for everyone. We’ve done all that we can to ensure as many events as possible are free or low cost. Some need to be booked, some are simply drop-in. Please check our website for all the information - and we hope to see you there!”

For full information, including booking details, see A Matter Of Life And Death Festival 2025 on the BrumYODO events page: brumyodo.org.uk. You can also follow the festival on social media @BrumYODO

By Diane Parkes