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Our largest theatre, Birmingham Hippodrome, is also the country's busiest, welcoming audiences of more than half a million people each year. If it's laughs you're after, Birmingham's two live comedy venues fit the bill, with both Jongleurs and The Glee Club being regular stop-offs for the best stand up-acts in the country.

Birmingham Pride is the city's annual gay and lesbian event and takes place over the May Bank Holiday weekend. Highlights include a street carnival, funfair and open markets.

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Spicy Space Raiders Rule the known Universe

by Danny Smith in the arts

Psssst there's a piss-up Illustration opening tonight in the Jewelery Quarter. It's the first Daze-Ray exhibition. Details are HERE (warning its Facebook)There will be Space Raiders, sweets and possibly pretty picturesHT/ CrIB

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Urban music and fashion has a worldwide and ind...

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on The Urban Fashion and Music Conference 2010

Lonely Planet Birmingham Student Guide Launch

galleries...

Royal Birmingham Society of Artists

The RBSA is Birmingham's only independent artist-owned and run, self-financing gallery. The society aims to involve and educate people in teh practice and appreciation of the visual arts through, exhibitions, demonstrations, workshops and talks. You can see and buy work from some of the best local and nationally known artists and craft makers. Excellent access for the disabled.

Barber Institue of Fine Arts

Rubens, Gainsborough, Turner and Rossetti; Monet, Renoir and Degas; Van Gogh, Picasso and Margrite....Key paintings drawings and sculptures by these and other famous artists hang in this outstanding public gallery. There is also a regular programme of exhibitions, concerts, lectures and events.

Number Nine the Gallery

Number nine is a must-see for anyone interested in fine and modern arts.

Ikon Gallery

Housed in the neo-gothic Oozells Street School, Ikon Gallery features temporary exhibitions with a variety of media represented, including sound, film, mixed media, photography, painting, sculpture and installation. Ikon's off site programme develops dynamic relationships between art, artists and audiences outside of the gallery.

Birmingham Musuem & Art Gallery

Housed in a spectacular Victorian building, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery has the largest collection of Pre-Raphaelite art in the world as well as collections of silver, sculpture, ceramics and ancient social history. The waterhall Gallery of Modern Art and Gas Hall house is an exciting programme of visiting exhibitions.

CBSO

The CBSO is widely acknowledged as one of the world's finest musical ensembles. The Orchestra performs around 75 concerts each year as the resident orchestra of Symphony Hall and also acts as a cultural ambassador for Birmingham when it performs in other UK venues and overseas.

Symphony Hall

With its world- class acoustics and stunning auditorium, Symphony Hall is considered to be not only the UK's finest concert hall but also one of the best in the world. It promotes its own season of prestigious international orchestras and is also home to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Complementing the programme is the best in jazz, world music, folk, rock, pop and stand-up comedy.

Town Hall

Following its closure in 1996 and a £35m renovation, the Grade 1 listed Town Hall Birmingham re-opened in October 2007 as a flexible, world-class venue with 1,100 seats. Managed and programmed jointly with the Symphony Hall, it will welcome everyone with an exciting and varied programme of over 300 concerts and events each year, involving local, national and international performers.

The Old Joint Stock Theatre

This is the only purpose built pub theatre in Birmingham situated above the Old Joint Stock Pub in the city centre, right opposite the Cathedral in Temple Row West. The theatre presents a varied programme of new and established plays along with comedy and music nights and can seat up to 80 people. It is a small studio space that can stage performances in the round, traditional end on style, thrust, traverse or apron style. The theatre is also for hire.

The Royal Shakespeare Company

Visiting the RSC in Shakespeare's Stratford-Upon-Avon is an opportunity to experience the largest classical theatre company in the world. The great works of Shakespeare and other classic and contemporary writers are performed throughout the year in our Stratford theatres. Plus a restaurant, shops and guided tours.

The Crescent Theatre

The Crescent Theatre is one of Birmingham's oldest theatres with a reputation for producing high quality entertainment at affordable prices. Located just off Broad Street, the theatre is part of the Brindleyplace development and celebrated its 7th anniversary in 2007.

The Birmingham Stage Company @ The Old Rep

The Birmingham Stage Company is the professional resident company of The Old Rep Theatre staging a wide variety of acclaimed productions. The company's Patrons are Sir Derek Jacobi and Paul Scofield.

Birmingham Repertory Theatre

One of Britain's most successful producing theatres, having achieved national recognition and prestigious awards for quality, excitement and innovation of its programme. Classic, contemporary new plays and dance are staged in its 850 seat Theatre. The 140 seat studio, The Door, is dedicated to new writing.

Alexandra Theatre

The Alexandra Theatre located in Birmingham City Centre is one of the top touring theatres in the country, featuring a wide range of entertainment from West End musicals, dramas and comedies to one night concerts.

Birmingham Hippodrome

Since its award-winning £35m redevelopment, Birmingham Hippodrome is now one of the UK's finest theatres, boasting a superb range of conference and meeting rooms on site, along with outstanding in-house catering and technical support. The theatre itself has a 1,850 auditorium plus a new 200 seat studio space ideally suited to seminars, presentations and a flexible 120-cover restaurant.

The British Science Festival

The British Science Festival will be visiting Birmingham
from 14 -19 September 2010 to showcase the latest excellence
in science, technology and engineering.

One of Europe's largest science festivals, taking place each September, the six-day event attracts visitors of all ages, with an ever-expanding array of lectures, debates and science-related demonstrations, as well as a dedicated young persons' programme, which will run at Thinktank.

With 180 events scheduled, the British Science Festival aims to bring science closer to the public by showing how it can be engaging, insightful and applicable to their everyday lives.

Organised by the British Science Association, the Festival will be hosted by Aston University and supported by Advantage West Midlands, Saudi Aramco, Birmingham City Council, the University of Birmingham and Birmingham City University.

Flatpack Festival 2010

23 - 28 March

Taking film to an eclectic array of unexpected spaces and showcasing eye-popping technological tomfoolery, Flatpack Festival 2010 offers a platform for new filmmakers and moving image creativity along with a programme of cult classics re-imagined, silent cinema re-scored, and archive material re-invented.

Special Events Include:

The opening film, F.W. Murnau's 1927 marvel Sunrise, presented at St Martin's Church in the Bullring with a new score by acclaimed jazz musicians Alcyona Mick and Robin Fincker.

French artist Julien Maire plays with technology to create bewitching optical illusions. Working from Birmingham library, Maire will make text appear with his fingertips, and presents a rare performance of his piece Diapositives using modified slide-projectors.

Dublin collective Synth Eastwood are doing a mini-residency in Birmingham, building up to a warehouse event blurring the boundaries between gallery and club. Expect an eye-opening stew of graphics, installations, music and performance. Live guests include Clark (Warp), AV duo Gangpol and Mit and youtube provocateur Hugh Cooney.

This year's Flatpack 'patron saint' is Oscar Deutsch, the son of a Birmingham scrap metal merchant who built his first Odeon cinema 80 years ago and went on to bring art deco glamour to high streets across the UK. Flatpack doffs its cap to the great man with bus-tours to landmark Odeon buildings, classic matinees and an exploration of Birmingham's cultural scene in the 30s with writer David Lodge.

Ghost Box present the Sunday finale of haunted electronica, spooky 70s telly and cult soundtracks at the Belbury Youth Club.

Check the Flatpack website for full screening programme and more special events...

Supersonic

Supersonic festival is an eclectic and experimental playground, where new and emergent talent exhibit their skills alongside established and world-renowned practitioners. This two day festival takes place in and around the Custard Factory in Digbeth. The Wire magazine says 'As British music festivals go, Birmingham's annual Supersonic event is the best kind of mixed musical bag, a dizzying assortment of avant rock textures and heavy metal thunder on a bill which swings from sublime to the ridiculous without once seeming ostentatiously eclectic.

Gay Pride

This annual weekend has a fantastic programme of stunning acts at many venues and an incredible main stage line up. The Pride Festival is kicked off by the Lord Mayor with an event showcasing community groups followed by a parade with street performers and dancers throughout the area.

ArtsFest

ArtsFest is Birmingham's biggest and most vibrant cultural festival! 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 activites. ArtsFest is a festival for the young and old alike and we really do stick by our motto that there is something here for everybody! Weekends each September.

Jazz Festivals

Over 10 jazz-packed summer days every July, Birmingham becomes Jazz City UK, with more jazz per square metre than has New Orleans. Jazz fans and other fun-lovers from all over the country and further afield, make their way to Birmingham for the biggest and best free jazz party in the UK. Musicians and bands from USA, Spain, France, South Korea, Hungary, Poland, Holland, Czech Republic and Venezuela line up alongside the best from the UK and from teh region to present a feast of some 180 concerts in ten days, almost every one free to the public.