Save The Date – Harborne Green Village Fete

The Harborne Village Business Improvement District (BID) is delighted to announce the first Harborne Green Village Fete – an outdoor end-of-summer bonanza that will take place on Harborne High Street this Sunday (12 September 2021).

The day promises to be a fun, family-friendly day out for all of the local community, featuring a live music stage, makers market, arts and crafts activities, free fun fair rides, eco and sustainability demos, 40+ local traders, alfresco dining and much more!

The event will take place on Harborne High Street and will be officially opened by the Lord Mayor of Birmingham Councillor Muhammad Afzal at 11am. The event is expected to run until 7pm. The High Street will be closed to traffic during the event and diversions will be in place.

Live entertainment will be headlined by one of Birmingham’s most loved local reggae bands, The Heels, who are set to bring their iconic Soul and Funk sound to the village stage. Local Harborne based choir Got2Sing are also set to perform, and will delight crowds with their take on pop songs throughout the ages. Los Soneros, sponsored by Estado Da India, will also be performing on the village stage; a talented Latin American group dedicated to playing the best Latin music around. Completing the stage line-up throughout the day will also be a variety of local musicians and bands, set to bring some end-of-summer feel good vibes to Harborne. There will also be street entertainment and walk-about characters set to interact and delight visitors.

As part of Harborne VIllage’s efforts to encourage sustainability, the event will have a key focus on environmental practices and will feature a variety of eco-demonstrations. Green highlights include Bocks Projects demonstrating how to make arts and crafts out of junk collected from the High Street; National Express West Midlands heading up talks on sustainable travel, as well as exhibiting some of their electric buses; Voi scooters hosting the ‘fete test track’ and giving visitors free scooter rides, and Birmingham City Council demonstrating their mobile recycling centre. There will even be compostable public toilets for visitors to encourage reduced water waste.

Organised by local businesses alongside the Harborne Village BID, the fete will bring together businesses and community to celebrate Harborne and the people who make it a great place to live and work. All food and drink offering on the day will be provided by local businesses, including Estado Da India who will be cooking up fresh food in the street; Cream Tea’s courtesy of Paul@Number 41; a summer BBQ by The Green Man; wine and cocktails from Harborne Kitchen, and an outdoor bar courtesy of Hawkshead Taphouse. Many of Harborne’s eateries will also be extending their opening hours and offering take away options so visitors can sit in the street and soak up the day’s atmosphere.

And as a special thank you to the local community for supporting Harborne Village businesses over the past 18 months, and to welcome visitors back to the High Street, the Harborne Village BID has arranged for all fun fair rides to be FREE on the day! Which means families can enjoy rides such as the ferris wheel, carousel and swingboats, at no cost. There will also be an old fashioned ‘Strongman Game’ to test your strength, and for those arty types there will be free arts and play areas from the Glue Collective, Creation Station and Bock Projects, including a ‘carefree play area’ with a mud kitchen, crown making, repurposing and recycling for play.

Kate Smart, BID Manager and part of the event organising team, said: 

“This event is not to be confused with the Harborne Carnival! We’re delighted to bring a completely new event to Harborne, one that will unite our businesses and community, and celebrate all that makes Harborne wonderful. Everyone has been through a challenging time over the past few months, but our community has stuck together and supported each other through thick and thin. We’ve organised this event as a special thank you to the whole community for their support over the past 18 months, and we’re delighted at the reaction that we’ve had from the public and businesses so far. We thought everyone deserved a fun day out in the heart of our community, and we’re looking forward to inviting visitors from all over Brum to see what Harborne is made of!

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