2012 festival programme
The 2012 Still walking festival takes place between March 15th and April 1st.
That’s nearly three weeks of events riffing off the idea of walking tours and seeing where it takes us. Some of our events you will recognise as guided tours – people sharing their research about historical and cultural aspects of the urban environment – whilst others offer insight into a more personal experience of navigating through the city. Click through to find out more details about each event and to buy tickets.
Please make sure you’ve read our terms and conditions and know about our bad weather alternative, the Still Walking Hob-Nob.
We would also like to thank the many organisations and individuals who have made the festival possible.
What are you waiting for? Get Still Walking!
Thursday March 15th
- Birmingham Noir // Ben Waddington
Local Historian Ben Waddington explores some of the more cryptic aspects of the Colmore Business District: gargoyles, timeslips and assorted oddities. The tour also focuses on some unexpected aspects of Birmingham’s involvement in cinema history.
Saturday March 17th
- Shaping Cinema // Martin Parretti
Follow the trail of Birmingham Cinema: its history, architecture, entrepreneurs and its wider influence on British Cinema.
Sunday March 18th
- On Location // Mark Wilson
Mark Wilson’s tour visits some of Birmingham’s TV & Film locations from the last 40 years. Seeing his home city used as a London substitute in the BBC series “Hustle” led Mark to research other shows and movies that had previously used the city’s locations.
Friday March 23rd
- Radial Truths // Chris Tomlinson
This cycling tour will explore the social history of bicycle production and use in Birmingham. We will visit sites of local and sometimes international importance to cycling as it developed into a significant industry and practice from the beginning of the 20th Century.
Saturday March 24th
- Eyes at Rest // Usha M
Dare to remove your primary sense – vision – and Usha M will reveal to you a hidden landscape of textures, surprising contours, unexpected temperatures and out-of-the-blue sounds. Brindleyplace will never look the same to you again…
Saturday March 24th
- Written in Concrete // Ben Waddington
On this timely, personal reflection of Birmingham’s Brutalist buildings, Ben visits iconic concrete edifices around the city, revealing their gentler aspects and considering what it will mean when these buildings are gone.
Saturday March 24th
- Birmingham Graphic DNA // Geraldine Marshall
Graphic DNA is the subject of Geraldine Marshall’s PhD Research Project, which aims to delineate and profile the graphic character of Birmingham through photographing, gathering, curating, cataloguing and describing the letterforms found in the city’s urban and civic environment.
Sunday March 25th
- Swanning Around Erdington// Kerrie Reading
With stories and memoirs collected from the inhabitants of Erdington, come along and delve into the town’s past and uncover old memories, celebrate its present by sharing your own anecdotes and take time to contemplate its future.
Sunday March 25th
- Walk the Queensway // Joe Holyoak
Joe Holyoak’s history of the ring road charts Birmingham’s ambitious planning mistakes and energetic dismantlings over the past 50 years. Discover Birmingham’s bewildering, inconvenient public spaces and walk where for thirty years no-one has walked.
Friday March 30th
- Digbeth Listening Walk // Liminal
David Prior of Liminal will lead participants on a walk listening to the varied soundscapes in the Digbeth area, using a number of listening exercises. The walk will start in the Bullring shopping centre and meander through the area around Fazeley Street.
Friday March 30th
- Walking & Art // Hannah Hull
A talk. From the radical politics of the Situationists to the organic poetry of Land Art, Hannah presents historical and contemporary examples of art walks and artists walking; as an act of subversion, play, protest, or contemplation.
Saturday March 31st
- The Big Brum Love Tour // Sas & Marty Taylor
A guided walk in the form of a procession through the streets of Birmingham. Help spread the love (& collect it!) throughout the second city.
Saturday March 31st
- Micro-navigation in the Company of Mountains and Tower Blocks // Alison Lloyd
Alison will make connections between contemporary art and outdoor/mountain cultures by using ‘micro navigation’ as a way of becoming aware of the subtle changes in the street and ground levels. Measure distance travelled by timing and pacing and identifying features on the map as we traverse through the city.
Sunday April 1st
- Brumicana — Urban Myths and Memes // Jon Bounds and Danny Smith
The tour will delve into the deep unknown, revealing the dusky and improbable history of the second city. Gangsters, pop stars, geniuses and chemists have all marked their territory in blood, piss and ink. We’ll show you the stains.
There are many Walking Events happening around the city all the time. They’re not organised by Still Walking, but we think you should go anyway!