Birmingham Hippodrome Will Raise £36,000 to Grow Community Engagement at Festivals

Birmingham Hippodrome is participating in The Big Give Arts for Impact campaign, seeking to raise £36,000 to enable more people from underserved communities to access cultural experiences.

The donations raised will support the Hippodrome's access, community engagement and participation work, with a focus of supporting more groups to attend festivals produced by the Hippodrome, including Birmingham Weekender this summer.

Every donation made online between Tuesday 17 – Tuesday 24 March will be doubled with match finding, thanks to the support from the Hippodrome's Big Give Champion, The Reed Foundation.

Money raised through the Arts for Impact campaign will help Birmingham Hippodrome to:

• Host dedicated Access hubs at festivals with specialist staff and trained volunteers to welcome, share information and run activities.
• Run bespoke tours to support first time community groups visiting Birmingham Weekender to build confidence.

• Provide language interpreters for hosted community groups at advance visit workshops and during hosted visits to Birmingham Weekender and other festivals.

• Increase access provision including British Sign Language Interpretation and Audio Description at more performances across the festivals programme, and more wheelchair viewing platforms.
• Provide transport to and from festivals, to ensure a sense of belonging and welcome and to prevent finance being a barrier to participation.

Judith Greenburgh, Head of Fundraising and Development at Birmingham Hippodrome, said: “Our free festival programme ignites Birmingham with a city-wide explosion of world class arts. We want to deepen accessible and inclusive provision at our 2026 festivals for disabled visitors and underserved communities, so that more people can experience creativity in unforgettable new ways.

As an independent charity, campaigns like The Big Give's Arts for Impact make a significant difference to the work we do with communities who face barriers to engaging with arts and culture.”

The Big Give Arts for Impact campaign launches on Tuesday 17 March at midday and closes on Tuesday 24 March. Find out more and donate here.

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