More than 100 acts will perform in jazz festival
More than 100 musical performances will take place during a 10-day jazz festival which will be held this summer.
The 37th Birmingham, Sandwell and Westside Jazz Festival will run from July 15 to 26 this year.
The event, first held in 1985, went ahead last year, despite the coronavirus pandemic, although it took place in a reduced form during October.
Organiser Jim Simpson said he expected this year's festival to be back to something approaching what was normally expected.
"The festival will present over 100 performances, with more than 90 per cent of them free to the public," he said.
"As well as jazz, blues, swing, dixieland and more, there will also be free ukulele, jitterbug, vocal and instrumental workshops open to all comers of any age and ability.
"It is bound to be a wild few weeks in the jazz festival office, talking to venues, booking musicians, recruiting volunteers, ordering programmes, posters and T-shirts ready for the programme announcement at the beginning of June."
Mr Simpson said the venues, bars, restaurants, shopping centres and markets hosting the festival would all strictly adhere to social distancing and all other requirements.
The Festival has received £75,433 from the Government's Cultural Recovery Fund.
Mr Simpson said since its 1985 debut, the festival has generated more than £80 million for the region’s economy, put on 6,755 performances and attracted more than 2.9 million people.
