Coronavirus: West Midlands arts organisations link up for Midsummer Festival

Arts organisations from across the West Midlands, including the Royal Shakespeare Company, are coming together for a free one-day festival to celebrate the region’s culture.

It is the first event hosted by the West Midlands Culture Response Unit, which was set up to help the area’s arts companies and venues develop a coordinated response to Covid-19.

The Midsummer Festival will take place on June 20 to mark the summer solstice, and will comprise events and performances inspired by Shakespeare play A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

The day will include a live performance of excerpts of the play, staged at Compton Verney, the location used for the 1968 film adaptation starring Judi Dench.

The performances will be live streamed, alongside a production by dance theatre company Motionhouse and readings by Pentabus Theatre.

The RSC will be hosting a workshop as part of the day, and other organisations participating include the Birmingham-based Ace Dance and Music, DanceXchange, Birmingham Opera Company and the Ikon Gallery.

The Culture Response Unit is led by local arts body Culture Central, and is working with companies across the West Midlands on short, medium and long-term solutions to help them recover from the effects of the pandemic.

Director Erica Love said: "Covid-19 has decimated the cultural sector. It is more important than ever for the West Midlands to come together and support each other. The WMCRU believe that as a region we should respond to this unprecedented threat in a typically generous, loud and collaborative manner, which is exactly the spirit of Midsummer Festival.”

She added the event would bring together the digital skills shown by arts organisations during lockdown and the "outpouring of creativity from households and online communities".