If you want a flavour of what to expect, then Martin Pickard’s has a load of lovely photos from the rehearsals.

A side note: I saw a complaint on Twitter about The Voyage not being very well advertised (from someone who heard about it, went along and enjoyed it). I wasn’t there but I’ve heard crowd estimates of between 3,000-4,500 people, which sounds pretty good for something starting at 10pm on a less-than-balmy evening. This pic certainly makes Victoria Sq look pretty full.

I’m not dismissing the comment out of hand though. I’ve heard quite a lot about The Voyage over the past few months, but then I’m plugged into pretty much every possible source for this kind of news. I wonder if the problem is that we just haven’t got enough ways to get the news out around Birmingham at the moment.

• Ping! Which involves table tennis players and a string quartet. It was at Warwick Arts Centre recently and seemed to go down well
• Five Triple Rings, which seems to involve incorporating sport and maths into bell-ringing
• The Voyage, Stan’s Cafe’s “playful opera for a voice, a double bass and eight recorders”
• A screening of Twenty Seven Heavens

The full timetable of events is here and tickets are £6 max.

It’s being produced by the Hippodrome and created by Motionhouse and Legs On The Wall. The latter’s website says:

It involves six performers from Legs, twelve from Motionhouse, a choir of 40, an all women brass band and 140 community performers. It is co-directed by Legs On The Wall’s Artistic Director Patrick Nolan and Motionhouse’s Kevin Finnan.

Sounds impressive.

Incidentally, this is a good example of how to do a website for a project that hasn’t launched yet. None of this ‘watch this space’ or ‘come back when we’re ready’ nonsense. Instead grab a website visitor’s contact details so you can let them know as soon as there’s any news.

Oh, and I’ve also been reminded that Stan’s Cafe are doing a Cultural Olympiad-related project called The Voyage. That one will be on 6 May.