Birmingham will benefit from “the great gift of the mega-event”, said the creative officer of the Commonwealth Games at the launch of a concurrent six-month-long cultural festival.
Birmingham 2022 festival will include more than 200 events from March to September across the West Midlands and will involve more than 100,000 participants, making it one of the largest cultural programmes to ever surround the games.
“The great gift of the mega-event is that it comes and it gives an opportunity for everybody to work towards the same goal,” said Martin Green, the festival’s chief creative officer and former head of ceremonies at the London 2012 Olympics.
“Sport is codified by its very nature, it is the same everywhere in the world. So it’s the cultural activity, the festival, the opening and closing ceremonies, that give you the sense of place, and we have a great opportunity to celebrate this extraordinary creative place we’ve got here in Birmingham.”
The programme includes On Record, an album featuring 11 original songs about Birmingham by local artists including UB40,…
