• Here is a link to “Countercultural Capital & the Creative Economy – How do 1990s DiY Music ‘Entrepreneurs’ talk about the contemporary music business?” written by Charlotte Bedford for her MA Media Enterprise – Birmingham City University (May 2008)

    It makes an interesting read…..

    Placing independent music at the centre of the wider creative industries, this paper captures experiences and perspectives from 1990s DiY Music in order to inform the understanding of the rapidly changing ‘business’ of music……The role of the cultural entrepreneur is examined through accounts and opinions of independent music practice then and now, exploring the extent to which the current Do-it-Yourself digital music trend is new and ‘independent’.

  • Celebrating Sanctuary is back this year with our best ever music line-up and an exciting range of events across the city. Offering musicians originating from Angola to Albania, Kurdistan to Kazakhstan, across Africa, the Balkans and the Middle East, our events demonstrate the rich diversity of talent that is settled here in Birmingham.

    The key date in our calendar will be the Celebrating Sanctuary Festival on Victoria and Chamberlain Squares on Saturday 13 June. Alongside the music there will be workshops, displays, entertainment and activities for children, performances, arts and crafts, and samples of food from around the world – and all for free! In addition we offer music nights, a family music event, schools workshops and a schools festival.

    Birmingham’s main contribution to National Refugee Week, which is celebrated between 14 and 20 June 2009.