Saturdays pop in to headline Birmingham Pride

ORGANISERS of this year’s Birmingham Pride event are hoping to attract thousands of visitors to the city after securing a major pop act to headline one of its showpiece events.

Girl band The Saturdays have been booked to appear on the main stage of The Nightingale Club on Saturday.

Lawrence Barton, festival director and owner of the Nightingale, said: “We’re delighted to finally be able to announce that we’ve managed to secure The Saturdays to headline Saturday.

“It’s taken a little while to negotiate and we’ve been on tenterhooks for the past week or so.

“However, we’ve finally signed the contract and they’re now 100% confirmed. The whole team are very much looking forward to seeing them perform over the weekend. It’s certainly going to be one of the biggest and best Birmingham Pride’s ever.”

Also participating are Radio 1’s Scott Mills, who will be headlining The Nightingale’s  main stage with a DJ set on Sunday. Other artists already confirmed for the weekend include Freemasons vocalist Amanda Wilson, Sonia, Lonnie Gordon and Angie Brown. Nineties house stars Sash! and Livin’ Joy have also been confirmed.

Although the general festival site will still be free to the general public, the Pride Entertainment Zone – which includes The Nightingale main stage, The Village Inn Cabaret Marquee, the Chic Dance Arena and the Fox Entertainment Zone – will be by ticket only for the first time.

Edgbaston revamps commercial team

EDGBASTON Stadium has appointed Guy Wolfenden as Head of Commercial as part of newly structured team led by new Commercial Director, Gareth Roberts.

Mr Wolfenden has joined from Somerset CCC, where he has worked for 15 years and was the former Head of Sales & Marketing at Taunton.

In his new role he will manage Warwickshire CCC’s relationships with its commercial partners, the new 24-hour ticketing operation with Ticketmaster as well as the club’s membership packages.

Mr Roberts said: “Guy comes to Edgbaston with an outstanding track record of growing revenues on sponsorship, membership and ticketing, so he will be a great addition to the team.

“The Commercial Team has done a great job over the last few years of bringing in many new partners, who have remained with the club. The new team gives us the opportunity to not only maintain these great relationships with leading businesses, but also explore the many other opportunities that have been created from the redevelopment of Edgbaston.”

Catherine Nuttall, a recent graduate from the University of Birmingham, has also joined the club as Commercial Executive. She will work alongside Tom Rawlings, Communications Manager and Arnes Pobric, Strategic Marketing Officer.

Diamond Jubilee desserts are a real gem for M&B

MITCHELLS & Butlers-owned pub group Vintage Inns has launched a new range of desserts for its summer menus, all with a Diamond Jubilee-theme.

Chefs for the group of country pubs and restaurants have created the Vintage Summer Cake, a triple-decker sponge cake with raspberries and blackcurrants, summer fruit syrup, cream and blueberries.

The dessert will feature exclusively on the Vintage Inns menu until the end of August and for every slice sold Vintage Inns is donating 15p to Marie Curie Cancer Care.

On hand for the launch of the new cake was celebrity baker Paul Hollywood, above, of The Great British Bake-off.

Vintage Inns has around 200 outlets across the country.