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Birmingham Light Festival

Birmingham Light Festival's Audio Description tour offers not only a detailed description of the artworks, but also of the wider event. Attending a live Audio Description tour allows your guide to provide you with a more holistic, experiential description of both the event and the audiences around you, allowing you to build a picture of how people are engaging with or responding to the artworks. It also allows you to hear wider context of how the artworks look in relation to the chosen city-centre location, and gives you a chance to ask questions too.

This tour is designed for people with any form of visual impairment, their friends, family and companions. Assistance dogs are more than welcome too. Anybody is welcome to join the tour, but headsets will be given out prioritising those who need them.

START TIME

Meet from 18:00 to leave at 18:15

DURATION

2.5hrs, but feel free to dip out at any time

START LOCATION

Centenary Square, outside Library of Birmingham

FINISH LOCATION

Centenary Square, for a free hot chocolate for those who attended!

TOUR OVERVIEW

The tour will stop at all 6 of the temporary artworks. We'll have roughly 10 mins to enjoy each artwork before heading on. The tour will start outside the Library of Birmingham, where you'll be met by our tour guide, Caroline, and our team of festival volunteers who will also be accompanying you. Timings will be fluid depending on the access needs of the group. Feel free to join us at the start of the tour, or join us enroute if that suits you better.

ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION

The tour will be described through headsets. These will be given out and tested on your arrival. The route has been designed to be step free and as accessible as possible, but please note it will involve moving between artworks across Birmingham city centre footpaths. If there is any uneven ground, our guide will communicate this via the headsets en route.

WEATHER & CLOTHING

This is a fully-outdoor event, please dress appropriately and warmly. Due to the nature of the event, in the case of adverse weather there may be changes to timings of tour or availability of artworks. Any major changes will be communicated as far in advance as is possible, and so we encourage you to sign up to the tour so you are registered for updates.

ABOUT YOUR GUIDE

Caroline Burn, Talking Theatre: Caroline started her career in arts and culture as a professional dancer, and from it brings a creative understanding of art, light and movement to her audio description work. Caroline works extensively across the UK supporting cultural organisations, from theatres and venues such as The Lowry to outdoor festivals like Birmingham Weekender. She is a specialist in audio describing inclusive theatre and outdoor performance. Caroline has worked with OPUS on several occasions, including providing 10 days of AD for Birmingham Festival 23 and working closely onsite with the team for Wondrous Stories, the launch spectacle for Birmingham 2022 Festival.