‘More than UB40 and heavy metal’: Birmingham’s alternative arts and entertainment

The Commonwealth Games has kickstarted an explosion of culture in England’s second city, with loads to look at and listen to, as well as eat and drink

The last time Birmingham hosted a major international event – Eurovision and Bill Clinton’s visit for the G8 summit, both in May 1998 – the powers that be prepared by painting the scabby grass verge lining roads from the airport a vivid green. For the 2022 Commonwealth Games, there has been a similar sweeping under the municipal carpet: unloved buildings draped with huge colourful graphics featuring the mascot (Perry, a patchwork bull) and a desperate rush to get the trams running again. But this time the city really does seem to be getting something tangible, as well as a hope that the attention will last longer than the time it takes for a US president to drink a pint of mild.

Alongside the additions of some transport infrastructure and the venues, there has been an explosion of culture covering the city. In some cases that’s literal: Guyanese-British artist Hew Locke’s Foreign Exchange takes liberties with the statue of Queen Victoria in the square named for her. She will not, of course, be amused that she is crated and placed in a boat with five smaller clones. Locke says he has placed the monarch “as if she is about to be shipped off, like so many of these Victoria statues sent all round the world”.