CONTENTS * 4 - 63 EVERY BIRMINGHAM FESTIVAL in 2020 6 OF THE BEST PLACES YOU MIGHT WANT TO CHECK OUT IN BIRMINGHAM 6 PARKS & WALKS 14 BARS 24 PLACES TO EAT PART ONE 36 MUSIC VENUES 46 MUSEUMS 50 PLACES TO EAT PART TWO 64 INDEX BY CATEGORY 68 CREDITS * IT IS JUST POSSIBLE THAT WE'VE MISSED ONE OR TWO. SEE BIRMINGHAMFESTIVALS.COM FOR UPDATES. II 1 WELCOMEWELCOME “Life is a festival only to the wise” - Ralph Waldo Emerson 2 3 Chinese New Year First Bite & Bite Size JANUARY 18 bit.ly/1stBite2020 MAC Birmingham & Warwick Arts Centre Bite Size and its sister festival First Bite exist to develop and showcase new work from the Midlands. The activity runs across four public events and includes a fully supported commissioning process for three regional theatre makers. Ideas of Noise JANUARY 23 – FEBRUARY 9 bit.ly/IDNoise2020 Birmingham, Stourbridge and Coventry Arts and Science Festival Contemporary classical performance rubs shoulders with electronica, visual art and University of Birmingham Arts & film. This edition of Ideas of Noise spreads Science Festival its programme of cutting edge music, art JAN 2020 - MAY 2020 and interactive events across Birmingham, bit.ly/ArtsnScience2020 Stourbridge and Coventry. JANUARY Various venues across Birmingham Birmingham University’s annual Chinese New Year celebration of research, culture and JANUARY 24–26 collaboration - on and beyond its bit.ly/YearoftheRat2020 Edgbaston campus - is currently Southside, Birmingham showcasing the launch of the University’s Welcome in the Year of the Rat at new Green Heart parkland. Its spring Birmingham’s annual Chinatown gathering, programme sees thinkers, makers and the UK’s largest celebration of the lunar doers engage with the theme ‘Hope’. new year outside London. 4 5 Clent Hills Sandwell Valley Country Park 6 of the best... A half-hour bike ride along the Birmingham Canal is another major urban park, its charms only slightly mitigated by the M5 running right through it. Thanks to the acres of green, large play park and restored working farm, this is a hugely popular spot PARKSPARKS ANDAND for Black Country families on a sunny day. Clent Hills Like the Lickeys, an established Earlswood Lakes destination for Brummies seeking a brief taste of oxygen. Unlike the Lickeys, 400 WALKSWALKS acres of land offers you plenty of different walking routes and some great views. The Two regularly recycled semi-facts about Birmingham: more canals than Venice, and cafe in the car park does a decent bacon more trees than Paris. Although the city may lack for waterfronts or dramatic views, it sandwich, and there’s a nice ‘natural play’ has no shortage of lovely options if you’re looking to work off a hangover or a big meal. area in the woods nearby, Edgbaston Reservoir Sutton Park Sutton Park A two-mile circuit of the reservoir runs the One of Europe’s gamut from picturesque to sketchy. If you’re largest urban parks, on the Tolkien trail, beyond the eastern this place stretches shore you can find Perrott’s Folly and the for miles and includes Waterworks Tower - supposedly inspiration several ponds, cycle for the ‘Two Towers’. trails, footpaths and Earlswood Lakes a donkey sanctuary. The Canals In the outer reaches One of the best spots for a Sunday stroll and From Edgbaston reservoir you can sally forth there’s also a good a bit of bird-watching is at Earlswood, a few into the Black Country or take the towpath chance you’ll bump minutes south of the city centre on the train back into town and explore the Jewellery into a wild pony. and also connected to the canal network. Quarter, Digbeth or the leafier stretches Music pilgrims might want to continue across out towards the University. For cyclists or the M42 to Tanworth-in-Arden, childhood walkers these hidden arteries are a brilliant home and last resting place of Nick Drake. way to sample the city. 6 7 B-Side A6 Advert.qxp_Layout 1 28/01/2020 12:48 Page 1 Great British Beer Festival Winter FEBRUARY Winter beer, ethical porn, podcasts and spoken word 8 FEBRUARY Birmingham Swing Festival Verve Poetry and Spoken Word Festival PodUK 2020 FEBRUARY 1 bit.ly/PODUK2020 Millenium Point Calling itself the ‘Comic Con’ of the Podcasting world, PodUK is a one-day celebration of UK podcasting with panels, Birmingham Swing Festival Q&As and workshops covering everything from podcast creation to fandom culture. FEBRUARY 7–9 bit.ly/BSwing2020 Aston Students’ Union, Sports Aston, LGBTQ History Festival Verve Poetry Great British Beer Festival Moseley School Sports Centre FEBRUARY 20–23 & Spoken Word Festival Centered upon the Aston Triangle, bit.ly/LGBTQHis2020 Birmingham Swing Festival invite you to FEBRUARY 20–23 The Gas Hall, BM&AG, Nightingale Club join them as they continue their mission bit.ly/VervePoetry2020 to bring the best of swing dance and swing A long weekend of queer cinema, talks Patrick Studio music to Birmingham. and workshops under the theme ‘Looking Winner of a Saboteur Award in 2019, Verve Back, Moving Forward’, exploring how is this year moving to a new home at the Bean Flicks: previous generations’ LGBTQ+ activism Hippodrome’s Patrick Studio. The programme and empowerment can help to shape the embraces award-winning poets and local Ethical, Feminist Porn Festival way we approach the future. legends, spoken word artists, open mic nights Great British Beer Festival Winter FEBRUARY 14–15 and workshops pitched at all levels. FEBRUARY 4–8 bit.ly/BeanFlicks2020 Birmingham International bit.ly/GBBFW2020 Centrala, Digbeth Recorder and Early Music Festival Perfectly timed for Valentine’s Day, The New Bingley Hall FEBRUARY 20–22 For the first time ever, beer lovers’ Birmingham’s first ethical, feminist, queer bit.ly/IntlRecorder2020 and kink-positive porn festival. A packed line organisation CAMRA Birmingham are Royal Birmingham Conservatoire up of sex and porn researchers, performers, hosting the Great British Beer Festival Now on its third outing, this annual Winter. Beers of every style and shade will artists, activists and creators will lead a programme of discussions and screenings. ‘recorderfest’ combines professional concerts be imbibable, served from cask, keg and with demonstrations and participatory bottle. Ciders and spirits also available. events, alongside an early music market. 10 11 Birmingham Running Festival Sutton Coldfield Book Fest FEBRUARY 22 FEBRUARY 29 bit.ly/RunBham2020 bit.ly/SCBFest2020 Sutton Park Sutton Coldfield venues Returning to Sutton Park for a second year, Join beloved children’s authors Jacqueline Birmingham Running Festival provides Wilson and Nick Sharratt amongst others, to attendees with options to suit both keen discover books and enjoy interactive storytelling joggers and aspiring endurance runners with fun at this popular event for under-12s. 5k, 10k and Half Marathon courses on offer. Kebabingham Festival BEASTdome Mini Festival FEBRUARY 29 FEBRUARY 27 bit.ly/Doner2020 bit.ly/BEASTDome2020 Mutt Motorcycle Company, Digbeth Birmingham University & BOM Generally encountered wandering the city A taster for the BEAST FEaST (p25), streets in the hours between clubbing and highlights of this mini-festival include bass bedtime, Taste & Liquor assemble the best singer Nicholas Isherwood (known for his in the business to drag doner and falafel performance as Lucifer in Stockhausen’s into the daylight. T&L run various street Licht series), and the composer and food pop-ups in Digbeth throughout the instrument builder Dirk Johan Stromberg. year - see their website for details. BEASTdome Mini Festival 12 13 Tilt Dig Brew 6 of the best... 43 River St, Digbeth B5 5SA - open Thurs-Sat Like many other tap-room bars (see also Rock & Roll, Glasshouse, Burning Soul, Attic), Dig Brew has limited opening hours but is well worth a walk into Digbeth - especially now that they’ve upgraded their food offer with PUBSPUBS ANDAND weirdly medieval-themed pizzeria Dough. BARSBARS Dig Brew After a period in the doldrums, Birmingham’s ‘beernaissance’ (sorry) shows no sign of abating. Supported by plentiful small brewers capitalising on the excellent water Tilt (hijacked from Wales in the 1890s by Joseph Chamberlain), the city offers a good mix City Arcade, Birmingham B2 4TX of cosy, traditional pubs and craft-beer hang-outs. Activity bars sprang up everywhere in 2019, with drinking now possible in tandem with mini-golf, darts, baseball, Cork & Cage Bartons Arms 1373 Pershore Rd, Stirchley B30 2JR 144 High St, Aston B6 4UP shuffleboard, pingpong and probably base- jumping before too long. This city-centre Dotted along this unpromising stretch of the A grande dame of the pinball haunt predates all of them, and Pershore Road you can now find a bounty city’s pub scene, back distinguishes itself with a superior range of of independent eating and drinking options. in the day this place beers and a handy location. Offering a good range of beers alongside provided lodgings for middle Eastern nibbles, this place hits the the likes of Charlie spot for us. Chaplin, Marie Lloyd 1000 Trades and Laurel and Hardy. 16 Frederick St, Jewellery Quarter B1 3HE Its arts-and-crafts Winner of an Observer award in 2019, The Old Moseley Arms tiling and stained 1000 Trades has built a reputation 53 Tindal Street, Balsall Heath B12 9QU glass are beautifully with regular kitchen residencies and a One of the city’s finest back-street boozers preserved, and the busy calendar of music and events. The got even better a few years ago when they Thai food is excellent. Red Lion round the corner merits an started serving tasty, reasonably-priced honourable mention for Bathams on draft curries. In general there is just something Bartons Arms and excellent Sunday roasts. womb-like and wonderful about the Old Mo. 14 15 St Patrick’s Day Festival MARCH Podcasts, queer film, Irish culture and vegan food 16 Punkt Birmingham MARCH MARCH 18–20 bit.ly/Punkt2020 Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Whisky Birmingham St Patrick’s Day Festival Since 2005 an annual pilgrimage to MARCH 7 MARCH 15 Kristiansand in Norway has become a bit.ly/BhamWhisky2020 bit.ly/StPats2020 fixture for adventurous music lovers.