Alex Nicholson-Evans, City Curator
I have a real soft spot for Birmingham Heritage Week. When I worked at Birmingham Museums, it was one of the projects I led on and it’s been so fantastic to see it continue to go from strength to strength. It is delivered each year by the excellent Irene De Boo. Irene cares deeply about Birmingham’s past, present and future, and her passion for this city wide celebration is a huge part of why it’s grown to be such a success.
This Saturday, 9 August, the full programme for the 2025 festival goes live, and it’s something I’d absolutely encourage you to explore. Running from 12 – 21 September, Birmingham Heritage Week is a brilliant celebration of the city’s heritage in all its forms. The programme is always hugely varied – from traditional open days to opportunities to go behind the scenes and even things like running tours.
This year, I’ve been pleased to support the festival again but in a different way- through bringing the five city centre Business Improvement Districts — Colmore, Central, Jewellery Quarter, Southside and Westside together as Media/Communications partners for the event.
In many respects this a legacy of the approach we took for Birmingham Light Festival- an event which came to life as a result of those same five city centre BIDS co-investing in creating a new hero event for the city.
We all know this city isn’t flash with cash but partnership doesn’t always have to mean money. Don’t get me wrong, it’s helpful when it does but there are many different ways we can work together to elevate and scale events in the city. In this case, the BIDs have each committed to supporting Birmingham Heritage Week through marketing support – sharing the story of the festival to their businesses, readers and followers. Across their websites, e-news and social channels the five BIDs have a really strong collective reach and I hope this communications collaboration will play a role in bringing the festival to the attention of even more people.
Birmingham Heritage Week shines a positive light on so much for the city- our history, our architecture, our people and our places. The press coverage is always so positive and it’s a great mechanism for bringing more people into the city! Not just from local neighbourhoods, but from across the region too.
That means more people in Birmingham eating, drinking, shopping and visiting the city’s cultural venues. That’s good news for the city’s cultural ecosystem and good news for our local economy too.
With just two days a week in my role as City Curator, I know I can’t deliver every major event I’d like to see happen in Birmingham. But I really hope that by facilitating this kind of collaboration, I can play a small role in helping other fantastic producers and organisers to scale and grow their reach.
Each and every one of us can play a role in supporting events like this to flourish. So when the Heritage Week programme goes live on Saturday – hit that like button, share it digitally and tell your friends. I have absolutely no doubt that you’ll find an event you want to go to, so book that ticket too!
Find out more: https://birminghamheritageweek.co.uk/