Birmingham gets Fierce and Flatpack

Two festivals descend on Britain's second largest city in the same week

Birmingham will play host to two simultaneous arts festivals for the first time next week when the Fierce Festival and the Flatpack Festival set up camp.

Britain’s second largest city will become a hub of eclectic live art performances, installations, film, music and talks from Tuesday onwards when the Fierce Festival arrives.

Events will take place at venues across the city from Tuesday 22 March until Sunday 27 March.

Click on the image for some of the highlights in pictures

Fierce artistic directors Laura McDermott and Harun Morrison joined forces with the five day film festival Flatpack, and the two events are sharing a hangout space in the city called The Dirty End.

It has been two years since Fierce’s edgy party last tipped up, then called myFierce, but has been a decade since the tradition was first established as ‘Queerfest’ in 1998.

A quirky highlight is Flatpack’s 1960s Vintage Mobile Cinema, a caravan theatre which will be stopping off at different Birmingham locations throughout the week.

For those with a strong stomach, performance artist Dominic Johnson will have his left hand tattooed live onstage as a precursor to an immersive clubbing experience for Fierce called Human Salvage. The performance will continue the artists' studies into the art of “decorating wounds” and body modification.

Self-styled ‘art-comic provocateur’ Kim Noble (pictured) will stream live televised performances from The Dirty End for three nights from 25 March. His performance straddles both festivals.

Other Fierce highlights include ‘art pop’ group The Irrespressibles, performance artists Lundahl & Seitl’s guided tours around Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and artistic collective Quarantine’s Soldier’s Song.

A diverse mix of cinematic experiences will be on offer from Flatpack, ranging from commercial films like Fantastic Mr Fox to experimental short films.

Fierce and Flatpack bring the number of festivals hosted by Birmingham this month to four. They follow the St Patrick’s Festival which ended yesterday and the Eastern Electronic Festival.

For full listings visit www.flatpackfestival.org and www.wearefierce.org