Southside triples involvement in Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival

There will be a whole lot more live music going on in Southside in July as the Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival makes a welcome return to Birmingham. 

The number of venues taking part in the annual festival from within the Southside BID area has tripled this year from just one to three. 

Jazz and blues fans in the south of the city centre will be treated to ten amazing concerts at the three venues from some of the finest musicians within the UK and from across the world. 

The Southside venues taking part in the 40th Birmingham Jazz & Blues Festival, which runs from Friday 19 July to Sunday 28 July are: 

• Hippodrome Square 

• the Holiday Inn hotel in Smallbrook Queensway, and  

• the Ibis Birmingham Centre hotel in Ladywell Walk. 

Hippodrome Square has been involved in the festival for the last ten years, but this is the first time that the Holiday Inn and Ibis hotels have staged performances. 

Southside will be hosting singer Florence Joelle and boogie pianist Ben Toury, who are two leading French performers in jazz. 

Other star performers will include The Travelling Janes, whose members come from the USA, Singapore and Norway as well as the UK, and a barbershop group called the Anvil Chorus. 

Julia Robinson, manager of Southside BID, said: “This is our tenth year hosting jazz and blues festival events, but we have now added two new venues. We put on ten gigs every year and we love it. 

“Hippodrome Square has been used for the two previous years and is an absolutely brilliant performance area. It has a capacity of around 1,500 and we get lots of people turning up to enjoy the music in the sunshine.” 

Hippodrome Square will host six of the ten festival performances, with three at the Holiday Inn and one at Ibis Birmingham Centre. 

 Southside jazz listings: 

Friday 19 July 

• 5pm - The Journeymen – Hippodrome Square 

• 7pm - The Travelling Janes – Holiday Inn 

  Saturday 20 July 

• 5pm – Ben Toury – Hippodrome Square 

  Sunday 21 July 

• 5pm – Florence Joelle – Hippodrome Square 

  Friday 26 July 

• 5pm – Honeyboy Hickling Blues Band – Hippodrome Square 

• 7.30pm – Alan Barnes Quartet – Ibis Birmingham Centre 

• 8pm – The Hot Club of Halifax – Holiday Inn 

  Saturday 27 July 

• 3pm – Anvil Chorus – Holiday Inn 

• 5pm – The Smokin’ Ade Wakelin Band – Hippodrome Square 

  Sunday 28 July 

• 5pm - Jump, Jive & Wail – Hippodrome Square  

Copies of the full festival programme can be collected from all participating venues.