Birmingham City Centre to be transformed into giant 'garden oasis' for 17-day festival
Hannah Bechelet reports from the site in Victoria Square where work is underway to transform it into a pop up garden.
Birmingham's Victoria Square is transforming into a 'garden of magical proportions' this September in a 17-day festival to celebrate cultural diversity.
PoliNations, by Trigger Collective, is a project that will dress up the city centre in colour and lots of confetti accompanied with a programme of events from a range of arts.
Five giant 36 foot architectural trees will form the canopy of the urban garden oasis, along with thousands of colourful living plants - grown by local community groups - creating a forest and a meadow.
600 marigolds have been grown by over 1,000 local residents and will be planted by the clubs the on the opening weekend during 'Plant Up!'.
Angie Bual, one of the event's Creative Director said: "The PoliNations programme is the result of collaborations with members of many diverse communities and it's a true celebration of cultural diversity, individuality and self-expression.”
"The groups involved in the mass growing project reflect the diversity of Birmingham’s communities, ranging from youth to elderly groups, from expert gardeners to total beginners, including refugee groups, women’s groups, and disability action groups."
The urban garden oasis will hold free events open to everyone including talks, Tai Chi, sensory workshops, garden tours and performances spanning poetry, live music, drag and dance.
There's also two long weekend festivals on Poetry & Performance (9-11 September) and a Ballistic Seed Party (15-18 September).
The colourful revamp is one of the final festivals of Birmingham 2022 and is commissioned as part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK, which aims to bring colour, beauty and natural diversity to the city centre.
Angie Bual, Trigger's Creative Director said: “The idea behind PoliNations derived from the wave of Black Lives Matter protests that happened at the same time as the coronavirus lockdowns, when more and more people were reconnecting with nature."
Organisers said: "We were surprised to find out that most of the plant life in our city gardens has travelled in from outside of the UK and wanted to use the vibrancy of plant life as a metaphor to understand why we're multi-cultural."
Over 80% of the city-gardens in the UK are shipped from overseas and the inspiration for the event derives from the migration, infusion and integration of people and plants alike.
After the event, plants from the 'magical garden' will go back out to re-green the city centre.
What does the programme include?
Plant Up! (2-4 September) is during the opening weekend of PoliNations, the public are invited to attend the which will see diverse local community groups and schools planting flowers they have been growing across the site.
Poetry & Performance Festival (9-11 September) in partnership with BBC Contains Strong Language and the highlight 22 poets from across the Commonwealth including both regional and UK poetry talents.
Ballistic Seed Party (15-18 September) - The Ballistic Seed Party will be a four-day weekend finale celebrating self-expression with queer, South Asian, African and Caribbean artists from the West Midlands, carnival and drag performances.
Daytime offerings also include Yoga, Pilates and Tai-Chi provided by local groups, Into the Garden: horticultural tours led by experts from The Birmingham Botanical Gardens and more.
For those who cannot access the festival, the PoliNations app will invite audiences to step into a virtual super garden, create flowers and watch them come to life in reality.
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