Birmingham’s Flatpack Festival

Among the highlights of this year’s event, which spans two weekends for the first time, is the Revisiting the Arts Lab section. Looking at the psychedelic, synapse-bending posters that emerged from the Birmingham collective in the 1960s.

We’re also rather excited about a performance by audio-visual duo Demdike Stare. Known to their parents as Miles Whittaker and Sean Canty, the pair’s occult-skewed output merges elements from cut soundtracks, VHS horror and all sorts of other strange ephemera, producing an eerily hypnotic set of sights and sounds.

The 3D delights section of the festival will include a selection of 1960s Soviet animations and a ‘3D party’ which organisers say will include A/V performances and stereoscopic activities.

This year sees the introduction of Cyclomania – screenings powered by pedalling, with a programme tailored around the bike-building heritage of Birmingham.

The festival hub will be Flatpack Palais, which will this year reside in a Victorian building that once housed the Deritend Free Library. As well as providing a screening space, the venue will let visitors browse brochures and meet other festival-goers.

Other venues include the century old Electric Cinema, as well as less traditional spaces such as churches and warehouses.

Flatpack Festival runs from 21-23 March at various Birmingham locations. For more information visit www.flatpackfestival.org.