Birmingham Festival 23, a 10-day programme of free live music, performance and other events, kicks off late next month and is organised by the team behind the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games Festival. Creative Director Raidene Carter, who was executive producer of last year’s event, chats to What’s On about how the new festival came about, what audiences can expect, and why it’s important for Birmingham...

Where did the idea for an anniversary festival come from, Raidene, or was it something that was envisioned all along?
It was an evolving idea that brought together a few conversations, ideas and strategic plans. Birmingham 2022 Festival had legacy ambitions that were developed with funders and strategic partners, and one thread was exploring a new international festival that could be a future platform for some of the outcomes achieved and ambitions raised through staging the 2022 festival. There was undeniably a shared joyful experience of being in the city during Games time; people felt good, and this was a collective energy that would not have been the same if culture hadn’t occupied the city in the way it did. 

Given the cost-of-living crisis, it’s great that the festival is free to attend. Do you see this as a positive statement of intent by Birmingham City Council in terms of a commitment to funding culture in the region?
Possibly… hopefully! That said, I think the cost-of-living ‘crisis’ and commitments to funding culture are related, but I choose not to see them side by side, as this tends to unfairly make us question the value of culture. Culture has, time and time again, proven a return on investment both in terms of the financial value that can be calculated and the non-tangible value it gives back over time - happiness, wellbeing, sense of pride and place, making places attractive for visitors and businesses. It’s not a myth - last year the six-month festival cost roughly £16million and the independent festival evaluation calculated a £100million direct return with a further £87million in gross value added. So while we should absolutely celebrate that the City Council is funding the festival this year, we should also recognise that it’s a smart move - culture is a good investment! 

Do you hope that making the festival free will encourage people who may not usually attend arts & cultural events to check them out?
For sure. Honestly, while we want everyone and anyone to come out and enjoy the festival, we’re working hard to make sure that the audiences we reached last year - of which 70 per cent were from lower and low-income households - come back again, because the diversity and profile of the audiences we reached wasn’t the same as those who regularly attend arts & cultural events. We’d love for those who felt they took a risk last year, to come out again this year, and it will hopefully seem less of a risk and more familiar this time. 

This year’s event follows a similar pattern to 2022 in terms of utilising local talent, including a Made In Brum element. Can we expect to see some of last year’s favourites as well as new faces?
Yes, there’ll be familiar faces and loads of new talent, too. We’re right in the thick of programming, so I can’t say too much about what’s confirmed, but we are leaning into what worked last year - local artists and groups went down so well, and we know they want to build on that experience. We also had work happen all over the place and not come into the city centre, so if you think ‘I will have seen it all before’, you won’t have - unless you managed to be at every single site and day of the festival last year! 

Is it more of a challenge to put the event on this year without the Commonwealth Games, or is there a benefit to having less pressure?
It’s a bit of both! The speed of this year is a bit terrifying, but the familiarity is really helping those of us who were involved before. The pressure is much higher, even though our event is much smaller, as we really raised the bar last year. We’re not trying to compete or compare, as that would be silly - and disrespectful too, I think, as thousands of people came together last year to make it all happen. Instead, we’re paying homage to the Games by inviting people to come out and mark its one-year anniversary.

There will obviously be fewer tourists and international visitors this time around. Will that influence the style and content of the festival, in terms of gearing it more towards local people?
Not having a global mega event in town is one of the things that will make this year’s festival very different, but it’s not the only reason. We’re still inviting visitors from further afield and working closely with the region’s tourism & growth programme to make sure we’re part of that outward narrative this summer. The majority of the festival’s audiences last year were from the city and region, so we’re not changing the script too much in terms of audience development - we still want local people to turn up and know it’s for them, plus tourists.

How important is it to continue the legacy of the Games and last year’s festival, particularly in terms of celebrating the region’s creative community?
I keep saying there’s big-L legacy and small-l legacy but all of it is important. The smaller threads of activity that go under the radar are propping up or leading to the bigger outcomes. Birmingham Festival 23 will cover both little-l and big-L legacy for the Games. It’s happening one year on as a reminder of all that goodwill and intention, and we’re platforming lots of the creatives and work that developed last year, plus loads of new stuff and younger creatives as a nod to the future. The city and region needs major platforms to express the ridiculously broad range and amount of culture and talent here. When it comes together, it’s so powerful.  

Are there any events you’re especially excited about?
As I said, we’re right in the thick of confirming the programme, so it’d be a bit unfair to reveal details when the artists and companies aren’t completely sure of the plans themselves! We had an amazing glut of applications for Made In Brum, and the proposals for the Twilight Takeover were really inspiring. It’s always nerve-wracking putting a brief out to the creative sector, as you never know if it will strike the right chord with where they’re at and the current ambition in the air, but the ideas that came back were on the nose. It’s really difficult deciding what to programme for that reason - the hardest job is turning ideas down!

And the million-dollar question - will the iconic Raging Bull be playing a part in proceedings?
Well, we already know that Raging Bull will take up a permanent home at New Street Station, and given it’s probably the Games’ biggest cultural icon, I can’t wait for it to return - it’s a feat of puppetry engineering that we don’t often get to see up close. You’ll have to wait and see what happens… but we can’t actually fit him on Centenary Square during the festival as you wouldn’t be able to see the screen! Plus, we have Perry the Bull, who can dance and smiles a lot more than his angry cousin!

by Steve Adams

Birmingham Festival 23 takes place in Centenary Square from Friday 28 July to Sunday 6 August