Birmingham 2022 announces plans for festival sites

Birmingham 2022 has announced plans to bring seven festival sites to local parks and community spaces as part of the celebrations for the Commonwealth Games.

Festival Sites are free to enter events planned for Birmingham city centre and across the city’s neighbourhoods during the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.

They will be fully accessible and will combine sport, culture, and food and drink, as audiences enjoy some of the key moments of sport on the big screen, alongside a programme of live performances from artists and community groups.

The proposals include each neighbourhood site being open for two days during the Games, and Birmingham 2022 is submitting license applications for festival sites in the following locations:

Castle Vale Festival Site, located in Farnborough Fields, Castle Vale
Relaxed Festival Site, located at Sense Touchbase Pears, Selly Oak
Sparkhill Festival Site, located in Sparkhill Park, Sparkhill
Edgbaston Festival Site, located at Edgbaston Reservoir, Edgbaston
Oaklands Festival Site, located in Oaklands Recreation Ground, Yardley
Handsworth Festival Site, located in Handsworth Park, Handsworth
Ward End Festival Site, located in Ward End Park, Ward End

A site for people with complex disabilities is proposed at the Sense Touchbase Pears in Selly Oak, a purpose-built facility managed by the charity Sense.

Martin Green, chief creative officer for Birmingham 2022, said: “It is really important to us that residents from across the city have the opportunity to celebrate and embrace the Games, even if they don’t have tickets for one of our competition venues. These Festival Sites would make that sure that this is possible.”

There are also plans for large scale city centre festival sites and further information will be released about these later in the year.