Millions watch Birmingham 2022

Published: 30 September 2022
Reporter: Steve Orme

Motionhouse’s Wondrous Stories which opened the Birmingham 2022 Festival

More than 2.4 million people watched events at the six-month long Birmingham 2022 Festival, making it the largest cultural programme to have accompanied a Commonwealth Games.

The festival hosted a programme of 200 events with thousands of individual performances, talks, screenings, workshop sessions and opportunities to take part.

More than 80% of creatives were from Birmingham and the West Midlands. They took part in 106 community-led projects funded by Birmingham city council. There were also contributions and collaborations with 23 commonwealth countries.

Martin Green, chief creative officer at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, said, “the success of the Birmingham 2022 Festival speaks for itself and is a testament to Birmingham and the West Midlands’ amazing creative sector. We’re really proud of how the region’s creative organisations got behind Birmingham 2022 and had honest conversations about the commonwealth.”

Raidene Carter, executive producer for the Birmingham 2022 Festival, added, “I’m delighted we’ve been able to showcase how diverse and inclusive the West Midlands is through a festival of wholly new work. We’ll now turn our attention to defining what the legacy of the festival can be to make the most of this moment.”

One of the successes of the festival was “outdoor spectacular” Wondrous Stories by dance-circus company Motionhouse. It was watched by an audience of more than 20,000 in Centenary Square, Birmingham and a further 14,000 online.

Queer artists from commonwealth countries including South Africa, Ghana, Canada, India, Australia and New Zealand were celebrated in Healing Gardens of Bab, a programme of queer art in streets, squares and shopping centres as well as traditional spaces.

Critical Mass, the festival’s flagship participation programme, engaged 242 d/Deaf, disabled and non-disabled young people aged from 16 to 30, giving them the opportunity to perform side by side at major events including the opening of the Birmingham 2022 Festival and the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games.

The Birmingham 2022 Festival was made possible with £12.4 million from a range of funders including Arts Council England, The National Lottery Heritage Fund, Birmingham City Council and Spirit of 2012, an independent trust to build on the legacy of the London 2012 Games.

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