Last weekend our annual free hip-hop festival B-SIDE returned with celebrated ‘Graffiti’ artists, international street dance stars, award-winning emcees plus the biggest names in Birmingham’s home-grown Hip-Hop talent.

Now in its third year, B-SIDE Hip-Hop Festival took place in the streets of Southside attracting a wide audience of hip-hop fans from Birmingham and around the world. Produced by Birmingham Hippodrome in partnership with local Hip-Hop artists Breakmission, Juice Aleem, Graffitiartist.com and Mickeal ‘Marso’ Riviere, it was a hugely exciting event that showcased the Birmingham’s hip-hop scene.

New to this year’s festival, at Friday evening’s Welcome Jam we introduced a hip-hop game show where everyone tested their knowledge to compete with friends alongside hilarious hip-hop themed challenges. With a packed audience, we kicked off the weekend with a dynamic poetry jam and the city’s best hip-hop DJs.

A range of workshops took place across both the week and weekend such as Florence Okoye’s Neo Mmanwu Mask Making Workshop, Music Production with Emmavie, Flux-Con Comic Convention, Tela & Amani: Mindfulness and Yoga, International Graffiti Jam, Graffiti with Posca Pens for all the family, Writing Lyrics with Juice Aleem, multiple dance workshops and of course the highly anticipated B-SIDE final.

Break Mission held the hip-hop qualifiers and prelims on Saturday ahead of the finals on our main stage, which saw fierce competition battle it out for the title.

B-Side Hip-Hop Festival is part of Hippodrome PROJECTS, which provides a range of learning opportunities for young people and local communities, often working with vulnerable groups; and we support accessible performances for our disabled patrons. Over the past three years, Birmingham Hippodrome has reached over 300,000 people through the delivery of major outdoor festivals and events that celebrate the city and region such as Birmingham Weekender, Summer in Southside and B-Side Hip-Hop Festival.