The second weekend in September has been Arts Fest weekend in Birmingham for the past 15 years. According to the website; ArtsFest celebrates the West Midland region’s astounding wealth of creative talent, and shows the West Midland’s region as the bustling cultural centre it is. It features performances, workshops, exhibitions, installations, talks and screenings, across the performing, visual and digital arts genres. It provides artists with the chance to showcase and celebrate their work and to raise their profile with the large numbers of visitors the festival attracts. Visitors get to sample everything from traditional to cutting edge arts and entertainment, all free of charge The event relies a lot on volunteers to help things run smoothly, and I was one of them. My official title was Venue Assistant. I was located at Café Blend (near the mailbox), a little place just away from the main event sites of Centenary, Chamberlain and Victoria squares. I got to witness plenty of folk music and a little bit of R&B on the Saturday and heaps of poetry and spoken performances on the Sunday. When my shifts ended, I swiftly changed out of my Arts Fest t-shirt and wondered round to see what [...]
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