What is ArtsFest?
How did it all begin?

What is ArtsFest?
ArtsFest is Birmingham’s biggest & most vibrant cultural festival! Taking place annually, ArtsFest celebrates the astounding wealth of creative talent existing in the West Midlands and promotes the region as the bustling cultural centre it is – full of high quality, innovative, cutting edge arts and entertainment activities. ArtsFest features performances, workshops, exhibitions, screenings and discussions catering for everybody from the young to the old.

Most importantly ArtsFest is a completely free festival! There are no extortionate prices because there are no prices at all! This is pretty unbelievable when you consider that for its 10th Birthday ArtsFest 2007 involved 380 artists/organisations, that’s 3680 individuals in total and over 450 individual events. The festival site incorporated 8 outdoor areas and 29 indoor venues for the public to access with 6 outdoor stages in the premier city spaces of Centenary Square, Brindleyplace, Chamberlain Square, Victoria Square, The Arcadian Centre and Millennium Point.

ArtsFest is in fact the largest free arts celebration of its kind in the UK – something we are very proud of!!

How did it all begin?
Since its beginnings in 1998, ArtsFest has aimed to celebrate and promote the fantastic range of arts and cultural events that can be found on offer in Birmingham & the region and to attract new audiences to, and increase the attendance rate at, arts events in the city throughout the forthcoming year. The festival is designed as an opportunity for artists to be able to showcase their work & build their audiences and for these audiences to sample free of charge what is on offer throughout the forthcoming year.

Audience figures have grown throughout the years to 200,000 in 2007 – that’s 200,000 people attending one or more activities and events during the festival at one or more indoor or outdoor venues.