NYMT takes over Birmingham with a thrilling programme of musicals, youth engagement, and creative innovation.
The National Youth Music Theatre (NYMT) proudly announces FairGround, a bold and inclusive arts festival for children and young people from all backgrounds across the whole of Birmingham. Hosted at City Academy, FairGround will offer free creative workshops in partnership with other leading arts organisations and schools in the city. There will be specialist drama and music workshops for newly arrived children who attend CORE Hello - a groundbreaking education programme which supports children from around the world to integrate positively into Birmingham schools and the community.
FairGround features a series of four creative workshops, offering young people a fully funded chance to gain hands-on experience in a professional theatre environment. Birmingham Hippodrome will be delivering workshops inspired by their SEN Youth Theatre programme and BOA Trust will be leading workshops in technical theatre, with the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire guiding the music workshops, building on their existing outreach work at SoundLab. This collaborative endeavour will be set against the backdrop of an equally ambitious outdoor production of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, produced by NYMT and performed by some of the country’s brightest music theatre talent at Birmingham City Academy.
The inaugural FairGround festival forms part of NYMT’s 2025 Summer season, which also features three new productions at Birmingham Hippodrome. From the vibrant energy of Fame: The Musical (Thursday 7 – Saturday 9 August, the highly anticipated UK premiere of Tuck Everlasting (Thursday 14 – Saturday 16 August), to the fantastical world of Lightning Boy (a brand-new musical, Thursday 21 – Saturday 23 August). The season will culminate with Carousel (Thursday 28 – Saturday 30 August) a site-specific performance uniquely staged on a working carousel, underscoring the organisation’s visionary approach and its commitment to reimagining music theatre for new generations. Alongside the Birmingham Summer Season and FairGround, NYMT will also be running PLATFORM and CRESCENDO.
Everyone is welcome to get involved and NYMT is committed to making musical theatre and the professional industry more accessible to young people across the country, regardless of location or economic circumstances.