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ArtsFest 2009
Birmingham's annual free arts and music festival runs this weekend (Friday 11th-Sunday 13th).
Athlete are the big name act (you can currently hear their new single 'Super Human Touch' being played on BRMB), but there is plenty of choice for everyone across three days and multiple stages and venues.
Since its beginnings in 1998 ArtsFest has been truly unique within the UK.
With all events in the festival being free, nothing can be pre-booked by audiences and almost everything lasts only 30 minutes.
This means that you can see ballet to Bhangra, dub poetry to indie rock, without having to spend any money or queue for hours. What is 
more, as an urban festival - it comes without mud!
ArtsFest 2008 showcased 447 artists or organisations, (involving approximately 4500 individual people) and 581 performances, workshops or exhibitions.
Around 245,000 people attended ArtsFest 2008 over the course of the weekend.
A wealth of city centre locations were incorporated into the festival site last year with 30 indoor venues opening their doors to the public and six outdoor stages in the premier city spaces of:
Centenary Square
Brindleyplace
Chamberlain Square
Victoria Square
City Centre Gardens
The Arcadian Centre
ArtsFest 2009 opened last night with a eclectic mix of jazz, indie, soul, blues and world music, as well as a Samba spectacular and a pigeon liberation with an artistic twist.
Today will hopefully see over a thousand people break the Bhangra dancing world record in Centenary Square (you can register to take part and learn the dance steps at www.thewbbg.com or on Saturday morning in Centenary Square).
Find out more by visiting www.artsfest.org.uk