World-class ‘Graffiti’ artists, international street dance stars, award-winning emcees plus the biggest names in Birmingham’s home-grown Hip-Hop talent flocked to Southside in their thousands this weekend for the return of B-Side Hip-Hop Festival.

Produced by Birmingham Hippodrome in partnership with local Hip-Hop artists Breakmission, Juice Aleem, Graffitiartist.com and Mickeal ‘Marso’ Riviere, this year’s B-Side Hip Hop Festival saw over 5000 visitors take part in the city’s first, annual Hip-Hop Festival, which featured over 50 artists and performers from across the globe, covering all aspects of contemporary hip hop from emceeing to street dance, graffiti, contemporary dance, Afro-futurism, DJing and more.

This year’s festival also saw over 200 street dance and break dance competitors descend on Birmingham Hippodrome to battle it out to be crowned Break Mission Just Jam International champion. Organised by local hip-hop youth charity Break Mission, the weekend welcomed competitors from as far afield as Belgium, Germany, Sweden, London and Manchester arrive in Birmingham for two exhilarating days of live dance battles featuring Breaking, Hip Hop, Lockin’, Poppin’ and contemporary.

For the first time in B-Side history, this year’s festival saw the cream of Birmingham’s hip-hop talent come together for an evening of live performances and battles on the Hippodrome Main Stage on Sun 21 May. Highlights from the B-Side Hip-Hop Festival Finale included preliminaries and finals of competitions including Bonnie & Clyde, 2v2 and Dirty 30s plus – new for 2017 – the finale of the competition to find the Midlands Ultimate Street Dance Crew. Other highlights from the event included a live set from Birmingham-based emcee Lady Sanity, who treated crowds to an exclusive performance of her new single ‘Futures’ alongside performances from Hip-hop dance artist Boogie Frantick and UK rap artists Strange U.

B-Side Hip-Hop Festival is part of Hippodrome CREATIVE, 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.