Please see below for a communication from the St Patrick’s Festival organisers. If residents of Digbeth have not received this letter from the organisers in their postboxes, please email stpatricksbrimingham@gmail.com as soon as possible.

Dear Resident/Business Owner,

The Birmingham St Patrick’s Festival Parade is being held on Sunday 17th March 2013.

The Parade will start from Camp Hill at 12 noon. However, to ensure the safety of all concerned in the Parade, it is necessary to close some roads in the Digbeth area. The list of road closures can be found here (PDF file link).

Access to Digbeth will be restricted on Sunday 17th March from 06:00 to approximately 16:30. Certain roads in the area will be closed until 21:00, mainly those around Bradford Street.

All times for reopening roads are provisional, as roads will only be reopened when it is safe to do so.

If you are trading, or need access to your premises on Sunday 17th March, please contact the Festival Office as soon as possible, and no later than 8th March to enable us to process access passes:

Festival Office: 45 Alcester Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B12 0PH
Email: stpatricksbirmingham@gmail.com
Phone: 07919 563 195

Please note that access passes will only be issued to provide car access to private/off-street car parks. Passes do not entitle holders to park on a closed road.

Whilst we wish to keep disruption to a minimum, and allow you or your customers/users access to your premises, there may be times throughout the day when, for safety reasons, we have to restrict access completely. This is kept to a minimum and is usually when the Parade passes.

Thank you for your continued support,
Birmingham St Patrick’s Festival

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When: Wednesday 6th – Saturday 9th March
Where: The Custard Factory Theatre, Gibb Street, Digbeth, B9 4AA

Since 2009, SHOUT has been promoting, showcasing and presenting the best in LGBT Arts and Queer Culture throughout the West Midlands. SHOUT is delighted to be bringing a new festival to venues around the region, including Digbeth’s Custard Factory.

The performance of Generations will explore changing attitudes to LGBT lifestyles and ‘coming out’ through two separate stories:

The first play, 1975’s Thinking Straight by Laurence Collinson, follows Laurence, a gay TV script writer, who tries to write for a straight audience but two of his characters come to life and confront him – threatening to tear down the walls of his writing closet and out him!

The second play, The Lasting Sense of Sudden by Jonathan Emrys is based on a series of interviews with the West Midlands LGBT community, and is brand new for SHOUT. At times funny, sad, moving, outrageous and infuriating, it examines the ongoing struggle for self- awareness and acceptance.

For more information and for tickets, please click here to visit the SHOUT Festival website.

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When: Thursday 14th March 2013, from 19:00
Where: The Old Crown, 188 High Street Digbeth, B12 0LD
Tickets: £10 per person (available here)

To celebrate the arrival of the St Patrick’s Day festivities in Digbeth, the Birmingham Whisky Club is holding a special tasting event in honour of all things Irish!

We’ll be serving some good, hearty stew to prepare you for an evening drinking some great Irish whiskey in the company of Pernod Ricard’s Irish Whiskey ambassador, Stephen Carberry.

We’ll be tasting: Jameson Gold, Jameson Select Reserve, Power’s John’s Lane, Redbreast 12yo and Greenspot.

If you’d like to learn more, click here for the Facebook event page, or here to buy your tickets.

Digbeth Residents Association encourage you to have fun, but please enjoy St Patrick’s Day responsibly.

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When: Monday 4th March, 19:30 onwards
Where: The Spotted Dog, Warwick Street, Digbeth

Stuck for something to do on Monday night? Never fear, Filum Night is here!

As ever, your host and landlord John will be on hand with free ‘tay n buns’ (that’s tea and cream cakes to the uninitiated!) and his wicked sense of humour.

Next week’s filum is:

The Violent Enemy (1967)
An IRA plot to blow up a power station. Sean Rogan (Tom Bell) tries to stop the destruction. An intelligent thriller with powerful performances, adapted from “A Candle For The Dead” by Jack Higgins.

Enjoy!

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WANTED! Unemployed residents living in Digbeth/Highgate to participate in iSE’s Enterprise Match Project!

Situated in the heart of Digbeth, iSE has been awarded a grant to support unemployed residents into work through a mixture of soft skill development, mentoring and voluntary work experience.

The Enterprise Match project will develop the skills of up to twenty unemployed residents by linking them with voluntary work experience placements within local social enterprises, community groups, charities, small businesses and not-for profit organisations.

Digbeth and Highgate have been targeted as one of Birmingham’s priority neighbourhoods, due to high levels of unemployment and economic inactivity. One of the many social enterprises in Digbeth, iSE are keen to take action to support the regeneration of the area and support local residents to take a more active role in their local economy.

Participants in the Enterprise Match project will attend workshops with an experienced iSE advisor to prepare them for a placement (from two weeks to three months in duration). iSE will continue to support participants even after their voluntary work placements are over, offering advice on how to best utilise the skills they have gained and how to present them to potential employers.

It is hoped that this project will not only help remove barriers to employment, but also encourage residents to become more active in their community.

If you are a local organisation that would like to provide a voluntary work placement opportunity, or if you are an unemployed resident in Digbeth or Highgate keen to get involved, then please contact iSE on 0121 771 1411 or email Marla Nelson. Further information is included in the poster below:

Skills to Work

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