Flatpack Festival no. 20 - first look
Tickets for the 20th Flatpack Festival (8-16 May 2026) go on sale Monday, and we’re so excited to share the programme with you. Here are a few titbits to keep you going…
Comedy legends and their Midlands roots
The festival will open with the UK premiere of Chaplin: Spirit of the Tramp. Carmen Chaplin’s documentary explores her grandfather’s Romani heritage - including the revelation that he was born in Black Patch Park in Smethwick. We’re delighted that Carmen will join us for the gala screening.
Later on in the festival we'll pay homage to beloved comedy icon Victoria Wood. Hop aboard the comedy bus with Brum's own Rachel Baker and Barbara Nice for a journey through Wood's early years in Birmingham. We'll visit the pub where she played piano, her student digs where she watched endless episodes of Crossroads and Pebble Mill where she had her first break.
Flatpack Festival Hub
This year’s festival hub will be a hive of artist installations, exhibitions to explore and films to enjoy. Graphic novelist and illustrator Michael D. Kennedy will host a comic book cafe, producing new work centred around the search for an underground cinema for Birmingham.
Also in the hub, we’re excited to present A Cage in Search of a Nightingale. Over the last decade writer Daniel Bird has been sifting through over a hundred cans of outtakes, screen and camera tests from the legendary Soviet-Armenian film, The Colour of Pomegranates. For Flatpack, Bird presents a selection of these outtakes with a new unique soundscape created with the film’s original composer, Tigran Mansurian.
Beyond Digbeth
You’ll find us popping up in various Birmingham neighbourhoods throughout the festival.
Edgbaston’s Botanical Gardens will once again be transformed into a cinema under the stars for a double dose of outdoor film. On the big screen: Withnail & I (with special guest Paul McGann) and cult favourite The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Over in Handsworth, we’ll be celebrating the launch of Handsworth Compost Village in one of the greenest bits of Brum. Expect drop-in animation workshops, a mud kitchen and a chance to visit the allotment where photographer and artist Vanley Burke grows vegetables and makes new work.
Music
There are plenty of sonic delights on the menu for this year, including the return of French electronic trio Gamut, who will be delivering their unique and joyful blend of art and music with a UK premiere of their piece Panorama.
As for live scores, Flatpack favourites Stephen Horne and Meg Morley will share a brand new score for My Grandmother, a one-of-a-kind silent oddity and veritable playground of avant-garde experimentation.
Rounding off our twentieth year is Paul Morrissey’s gore-filled feast Flesh for Frankenstein, shown in all its bloody three-dimensional glory and presented with a new live score by LARVA.
May simply can’t roll around soon enough.
The full line-up will be announced and on sale on Monday. If you want to get in early, Flatpasses are on sale now - giving you access to the entire festival programme.