The city centre will bloom into a vibrant living oasis filled with thousands of plants and brought to life through free garden tours, audio baths, live music and light shows, costume design workshops, sensory experiences, poetry and performance and more!

We&rsquo;re coming for you, bab! During our time in Birmingham, the city centre will bloom into a vibrant living oasis filled with thousands of plants and brought to life through free forest tours, audio baths, live music and light shows, costume design workshops, sensory experiences, spoken word and more!

PoliNations

PoliNations opens! Hundreds of plants will be co-planted by local communities and schools who have nurtured them from seed, ready to take pride of place in the pop-up garden.

Plant Up

On top of our regular daily programming, PoliNations will present a weekend of spoken word events, featuring performances from the brightest sparks from the local, national and international spoken word scene.

Spoken Word Weekend

<div class="page" title="Page 2">
<div class="section">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
PoliNations will culminate in a four-day Ballistic Seed Party, combining the joyful spirit Carnival and Holi!
Over this extended weekend, Rangoli art will spread outward from the garden into the surrounding streets with celebrations taking place throughout the day and into the evening, when the garden&rsquo;s giant trees will burst into a cloud of confetti and colour. This is Carnival and Holi combined into one brilliant, messy party and everyone is invited!&nbsp;Enjoy epic performances, take part in Holi celebrations, and enjoy live music from some of the UK&rsquo;s best up-and-coming talent. Sign up to our newsletter to be the first to see our full programme announcement!
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Sunday 18 September is the final day, which will be dedicated to self-care with chilled out acoustic music for everyone to enjoy in the blissful oasis. Plus, we&rsquo;ll be giving the plants from our forest garden away both to local communuty groups and audiences for free! Once PoliNations has closed, the remaining plants and saplings will be distributed into the community, contributing to the growth and development of Birmingham&rsquo;s green spaces.
Check back here soon to see the full festival line-up!

The Grand Finale

<h5>Opening Times (Daily)</h5>
Monday &ndash; Friday: 12:00 &ndash; 18:00 Saturday: 11:00 &ndash; 17:00 Sunday: 12:00 &ndash; 16:00
<h5>Accessibility</h5>
<ul>
<li>The whole PoliNations site is accessible via wheelchair</li>
<li>The closest Accessible/Blue Badge Car Park is Pinfold Street parking and Waterloo Street parking. More information on this can be found on the Birmingham City Council Website.</li>
</ul>
<h5>Public Transport</h5>
<h5>Bus Stops:</h5>
The closest bus stops to Victoria Square are for buses 9, X10, 82, 87 and 89. Bus services are operated by National Express West Midlands. Train Station: The nearest train station to Victoria Square are Birmingham New Street (0.2 miles, 6-minute walk) and Birmingham Snow Hill (0.4 miles, 9-minute walk).
<h5>By Bike: </h5>
Bike racks can be located on the corner of Edmund Street and Eden Place or in the Southwest corner of Victoria Square. Birmingham benefits from segregated cycle routes into the centre from Selly Oak and Perry Barr as well as an extensive canal network providing traffic free routes. Find out more about Birmingham's cycle routes on Birmingham City Council website. Don&rsquo;t have a bike? Don&rsquo;t worry you can hire an E-bikes! A dock is located near Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. To find out more visit West Midlands Cycle Hire.
<h5>Parking:</h5>
Access to parking will be limited and we want to avoid congestion within Birmingham City Centre, so we encourage you to get to the site via walking, cycling or public transport. Birmingham is a 'Category D Clean Air Zone'. What this means is that owners of high-polluting vehicles will get charged for driving within certain parts of Birmingham &ndash; including around and near the Location of PoliNations. To find out if your vehicle will be charged visit Brum Breathes website.
Nearest parking to Victoria and Chamberlain Square is Paradise Circus Car Park and Town Hall multi-storey car park. It is operated by Birmingham City Council and charges will apply. If you display your Blue Badge, parking is free with no time limits.
&nbsp;

Chamberlain Square

<h5>Opening Times (Daily)</h5>
Friday 2nd September: 2pm &ndash; 10pm Daily: 8am - 10pm&nbsp; Saturday 17th September: 8:00 &ndash; 10:00 Sunday: 12:00 &ndash; 16:00
<h5>Accessibility</h5>
<ul>
<li>The whole PoliNations site is accessible via wheelchair</li>
<li>The closest Accessible/Blue Badge Car Park is Pinfold Street parking and Waterloo Street parking. More information on this can be found on the Birmingham City Council Website.</li>
<li>We will have an accessible viewing platform available during the Poetry &amp; Perfomrance Festival and Ballistic Seed Party</li>
<li>Many of the events will have BSL interpreters and Audio Description available.</li>
</ul>
<h5>Public Transport</h5>
<h5>By Train:</h5>
The nearest train station to Victoria Square are Birmingham New Street (0.2 miles, 6-minute walk) and Birmingham Snow Hill (0.4 miles, 9-minute walk).
<h5>By Bus:</h5>
The closest bus stops to Victoria Square are for buses 9, X10, 82, 87 and 89. Bus services are operated by National Express West Midlands.
<h5>By Bike:</h5>
Bike racks can be located on the corner of Edmund Street and Eden Place or in the Southwest corner of Victoria Square.
Birmingham benefits from segregated cycle routes into the centre from Selly Oak and Perry Barr as well as an extensive canal network providing traffic free routes. Find out more about Birmingham's cycle routes on Birmingham City Council website. Don&rsquo;t have a bike? Don&rsquo;t worry you can hire an E-bikes! A dock is located near Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. To find out more visit West Midlands Cycle Hire.
<h5>Parking:</h5>
Access to parking will be limited and we want to avoid congestion within Birmingham City Centre, so we encourage you to get to the site via walking, cycling or public transport. Birmingham is a 'Category D Clean Air Zone', which means owners of high-polluting vehicles will get charged for driving within certain parts of Birmingham &ndash; including around and near the Location of PoliNations. To find out if your vehicle will be charged visit Brum Breathes website.
Nearest parking to Victoria and Chamberlain Square is Paradise Circus Car Park and Town Hall multi-storey car park. It is operated by Birmingham City Council and charges will apply. If you display your Blue Badge, parking is free with no time limits.
&nbsp;

Victoria Square

Birmingham

Get your hands dirty and join in with the co-plant alongside hundreds of people from all over Birmingham. Made up of thousands of plants and flowers, the PoliNations super garden will bloom with colour throughout the festival!
Over the opening weekend, pick up one of the 600 beautiful pot-marigolds grown from seed and Plant Up! with the 60+ community groups from around the city to add to the colour and vibrancy of the&nbsp; PoliNations super garden. No need to book, just pop by and our team will give you a plant and help you place it in the super garden. Afterwards stay and explore PoliNations at your leisure. See you there!
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

Live Video

2 - 4 Sept

Plant Up!

This super-natural wonderland will unearth the origin stories of the plants we know so well. From daisies and dahlias to horse chestnut trees and the &lsquo;English&rsquo; rose, many of the plants common to our gardens aren&rsquo;t originally from the UK. Together, they tell stories of journeys and movement, dispersal and new roots.
PoliNations is a celebration of colour, beauty and natural diversity &ndash; a place to explore, enjoy and be your unique true self. Towering architectural &lsquo;Super-Trees&rsquo; will drink rainwater and create electricity using wind power, as the forest plays host to a vibrant free events programme. Experience music from around the world, marvel at an incredible nightly light show and then join us for our grand finale, where our Super-Trees will burst into joyful clouds of colour. This is Pride, Carnival and Holi combined in one brilliant, messy and playful all-day-all-night party &ndash; and everyone&rsquo;s invited.

The Awakening

Daily

We are so hyped to be partnering with the BBC&rsquo;s annual poetry and spoken word festival <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p058nfry">Contains Strong Language Festival at PoliNations this year!</a>
Building on the legacy of the events held as part of the UK City of Culture Celebrations over the past few years, get ready to experience spoken word in all its poetic forms from some of the finest existing and emerging talent from Birmingham and beyond.
The Poetry &amp; Performance Festival will highlight 22 poets from across the Commonwealth including both regional and UK poetry talents.
Special performances will include &lsquo;White Juju&rsquo; a live musical performance written in response to the Black Lives Matter movement, Black British History and lockdown by saxophonist and rapper Soweto Kinch (Mercury Prize Nominated). Jasmine Gardosi (Birmingham Poet Laureate Finalist) will present &lsquo;Dancing to Music You Hate&rsquo; a genre-defying performance by the poet, slam champion and beatboxer whose poems explore sex education, LGBTQ+ issues and mental health.
Further programming includes screenings of animated films created as part of BBC Words First, Contains Strong Language Radio Club workshop sessions with local schoolchildren and more artists to be announced.
We&rsquo;ll be revealing the full line-up for BBC Contains Strong Language soon, so sign up to our newsletter to be one of the first to hear all about it. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p058nfry">Find out more about BBC Contains Strong Language here</a>.

Pexels White Gold Photography 2345342

9 - 11 Sept

Poetry & Performance Festival

Taking inspiration from the fundamental truth of PoliNations that the very landscape and plant life that surrounds us each day is multicultural; Tuk Tuk Chaiwallah reimagines the narratives and lived experiences of the UK South Asian diaspora and its connection to the multi-layered influences that contributed to shaping its heritage and culture, with roots in travel and trade on The Silk Road such as tea, spices, poetry, dance and music.
Using influences of Kathak, Jaivant Patel Dance collaborates with live musicians Sanyogita Kumari (vocals), Hardeep Singh Sodhi (tabla) and Alec Cooper (sitar) around our specially made electric Tuk Tuk, inspired by the ones you&rsquo;d expect to see in India. They will be wearing unique costume pieces created by PoliNations&rsquo; Costume Designer Joey A Frenette aka Bourgeoisie (RuPaul's Drag Race, The Hatchling) with Pakistan based Yousuf Bashir Qureshi and Riffat Aliani (in collaboration with Jaivant Patel Dance),&nbsp;during a residency in Karachi, Pakistan as part of <a title="" href="https://www.britishcouncil.pk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">British Council&rsquo;s UK/Pakistan Perspectives season</a> in June 2022.
This performance is presented as part of an <a title="" href="https://www.polinations.com/latest/15" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exciting partnership with the British Council UK/Pakistan</a> season.
&nbsp;
&nbsp;

Ming De Nasty1

Tuk Tuk Chaiwallah Performance

<table width="699">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="321">
Come along to explore a playful journey &lsquo;From Soil to Sip&rsquo; with <a href="https://wearespectra.co.uk/">the Spectra cast</a>. An immersive, multi-sensory tour of the PoliNations&rsquo; super garden, we will explore planting, growing, harvesting, blending, brewing and drinking tea. Taking inspiration from tea growers and drinkers around the globe, we will discover seeds and plants, delighting in their wild fragrances and textures, while we brew the perfect mix of herbs and spices to share. Join us for the journey - tea drinkers of all ages welcome! &nbsp;&nbsp; Neurodiversity is at the heart of Spectra's work: they strive to cultivate a world which celebrates brains that work in different ways. We can&rsquo;t wait to welcome them to the super garden!
These performances will have a sensory focus and will be largely non-verbal. Find out more about Spectra <a title="" href="https://wearespectra.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">and their awesome work here</a>.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
&nbsp;

Every Morning

From Soil to Sip

There are over 5000 trees, flowers and plants in the PoliNations super garden!
Head Gardeners from The Birmingham Botanical Gardens are here to get you better acquainted with our plants - where they come from, how they came to our shores and what stories they tell.
Whether you are an avid gardener with an eye for biodiversity, or a plant novice who is keen to find out more - these free tours are a great way to learn about our super garden! &nbsp;

5 - 16 Sept

Into the Garden

Every day at dusk, our super will undergo a beautiful transition into night. Enjoy a mesmerising light show, nature-inspired soundscapes and ethereal performances, taking a moment to pause and reflect before moving into the evening's activities. The soundscapes centre around the ancient ritual musical instrument, the Bullroarer, and are developed and recorded by brass and percussion players from <a title="" href="https://www.bcu.ac.uk/conservatoire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BCU&rsquo;s Royal Birmingham Conservatoire</a>, <a title="" href="https://www.bcu.ac.uk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">part of Birmingham City University</a> in collaboration with PoliNations&rsquo; Sound Designer <a title="" href="https://tomgibbonssounddesign.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tom Gibbons</a>.
From Friday 15 September, walkabout performers in gorgeous, bespoke, plant inspired costume will guide the space into dusk. &nbsp;
&nbsp;

Pexels Ryutaro Tsukata 6249821

Sunset Shift

PoliNations culminates in a four day Ballistic Seed Party, combining the joyful spirit of Carnival, Holi, Mela and Mardi Gras into one brilliantly, messy, playful, all day party and everyone is invited.
Enjoy epic performances, glam-up with our drag inspired face-painting, henna and costume workshops, take part in Holi celebrations and enjoy live music from some of the UK&rsquo;s best up-and-coming talent, plus more!
Highlights include:
Catwalk Extravaganza An Extravaganza curated especially for PoliNations - expect a super garden filled with sequins and sass in an evening of pure, queer, unapologetic joy as artists take to the catwalk to perform, compete and dazzle!&nbsp;&nbsp;
Hosted by the formidable <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=&amp;cad=rja&amp;uact=8&amp;ved=2ahUKEwjbpf2A-df4AhWFWMAKHV3YDdwQFnoECAsQAQ&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Ftwitter.com%2Frikkibb%3Flang%3Den-GB&amp;usg=AOvVaw2UQLeYMylE23FH70GiWy3V">Rikki Beadle- Blair</a>, specially invited queer collectives and fierce performers will gather for a performance like no other.&nbsp;
Super Ballistic Saturday A grand finale like no other filled with colour, nature and beauty - this is Mardi Gras, Mela, Carnival and Holi combined. Get ready for epic performances, live music from some of the finest artists from the West Midlands and beyond, sustainable confetti, holi and the ultimate party vibes celebrating our true unique selves!
Head to the Main Stage for Yshee&rsquo;s Ballistic Drag party and to experience some epic live music performances from renowned disco collective Horse Meat Disco, rapper and hip hop artist, Kofi Stone and leading afrofusion collective Balimaya Project, to The Turbans, Birmingham's super talented TrueMendous and Sanity, NeOne the Wonderer, Cariss Auburn, Rosie Tee plus more!
Sunday Chill and Plant Giveaway Our final day is dedicated to self-care with chilled out acoustic music for everyone to enjoy in our blissful oasis, PLUS you&rsquo;re invited to come and pick up a plant for free as part of our Plant Giveaway! There will be a selection of plants you can pick up for your home, garden, a friend or community space to help regreen the city even more!&nbsp;

Steven Lasry Ys Ii H0l Apgs Unsplash

Thu 15 – Sun 18 Sept

Ballistic Seed Party

Drop into the WonderSphere and spend an hour or 10 minutes meeting new people and create something to take home. From creating your own rangoli and willow weaving to designing your own costumes and make-up, tea making, t-shirt printing plus more, there will be lots for everyone to get involved with.&nbsp;

Untitled Design (2)

5 - 8 Sept & 12 - 14 Sept

WonderSphere Workshops

Inspired by the histories and stories of our Iconic Plants on site, our series of free lunchtime talks every weekday will explore ideas across nature, history, society and design. Bring a packed lunch and join our speakers in conversation at the Mother Tree stage.
We're so excited that organic food grower and writer Claire Ratinon and artist and educator Sam Ayre have also curated a series of talks throughout our programme, drawing on topics from their booklet - <a title="" href="https://roughtradebooks.com/products/horticultural-appropriation-why-horticulture-needs-decolonising-claire-ratinon-sam-ayre" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Horticultural Appropriation</a> which explore the possibility and necessity of bringing a decolonial lens to the practice of horticulture. Claire and Sam will be in conversation on Friday 2nd September, exploring the themes of their booklet as well as environmental responsibility in the creative world and what the art world can learn from the natural world.&nbsp;
Iconic Lunchtime Talks highlights include:
<ul>
<li>Environmental responsibility in the creative world: Claire Ratinon and Sam Ayre</li>
<li>Decolonising the garden - how imperialism shaped the British garden: Sui Searle and Dr Ros Gray</li>
<li>Pandemics - drawing closer to nature: JC Niala and Dr Alex Mayhew</li>
<li>Iconic Plants: the Stories of our Garden: Jon Drori and Advolly Richmond</li>
<li>Thriving in a civic society: Jon Alexander and Imandeep Kaur</li>
<li>What if Finance is Nature Positive?:&nbsp;RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) and WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature)</li>
<li>Connecting to the earth- art and social practice: Owen Griffiths and Davinia-Ann Robinson</li>
<li>The Well-Gardened Mind: Sue Stuart Smith, in conversation with Chris Marchant</li>
<li>Growing and Healing in the Outdoors: Jo Capper from Birmingham&rsquo;s Grand Union and Marlon Patrice, Founder of We Go Outside Too</li>
<li>Language and colonialism- History and Oppression: Kevin Buckle in conversation with Ahmed Mudawi</li>
<li>Growing food in mattresses- the future of food sustainability: Professor Duncan Cameron in conversation</li>
<li>The Pansy Project- Resistance in Nature and Design: Paul Harfleet, in conversation with Carl Robertshaw</li>
</ul>

Claire Ratinon

Iconic Lunchtime Talks

Led by trained specialists, our tours are a great way to explore and experience the PoliNations super garden to its fullest by using texture, sound and other senses. We will prioritise allocating spaces on these tours to blind or partially sighted people, however others are welcome to join if capacity allows. &nbsp;
Touch Tours are taking place at the following times:
<ul>
<li>Sunday 11 Sept, 11:00</li>
<li>Tuesday 13 Sept, 18:00</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;

What's
on

Birmingham
2 - 18 Sep

2 - 4 SeptPlant Up!

DailyThe Awakening

9 - 11 SeptPoetry & Performance Festival

DailyTuk Tuk Chaiwallah Performance

Every MorningFrom Soil to Sip

5 - 16 SeptInto the Garden

DailySunset Shift

Thu 15 – Sun 18 SeptBallistic Seed Party

5 - 8 Sept & 12 - 14 SeptWonderSphere Workshops

DailyIconic Lunchtime Talks

Sun 11 - Tue 13 SeptTouch Tours

What'son

Birmingham2 - 18 Sep