Windows launch

Below is a flyer for next week's launch of the shop-window installation trail, at Urban Outfitters [map] from 5.30pm on Thursday 5th March. A little tour will wend its way around the shop locations on the night, ending at COW Vintage in DIgbeth around 8pm. We're really excited about what the artists have come up with; read Tessa Burwood's splendid BBC writeup for more of an idea of the trail.

(Flyer by Jaskinder Kaur, Birmingham City University.) Oh and for those of you who can't make it near a nice pile of brochures, here's a handy PDF we uploaded.

So what else is new? It's getting to that time when people ask 'how's everything going?' with a slightly worrying/worried smile. It's actually going really well. (I'm going to get this printed on a tshirt.) On Tuesday we had about 60 volunteers congregate at Friction Arts, all up for it - as always the point when the festival feels like it's happening. Even more exciting for me was going through the techy schedule with our video fellas and concluding that it is all just about doable (though no doubt this feeling will pass!).

But the best thing has been how damn excited everyone else is. When you're pretty much at the end of your tether with list-making and problem-solving fatigue and wondering why you bothered, along comes a palpable audience buzz to buoy you up and keep you going. Extra pressure, but a good kind of pressure.