The Big Picture - West Midlands

There’ll be free disposable cameras for the first 50 people who come along to Tontine Square, Hanley between 12pm and 4pm on Tuesday 12th February. There’ll also be photographers on hand to give advice and tips on photos and even facilities to print them off.

All around Stoke-on-Trent City Centre - as part of ‘Streets Alive‘ - there’ll be fantastical and odd events, you’ll be able to :

• experience the latest in comedy break dancing
• marvel at the comic knife-throwing show
• witness Gandini the amazing juggling quartet (recently seen on the Paul O’Grady Show)
• wonder at the Magic Singhs’ feats of trickery
• be dazzled by absurd slapstick acrobatics
• be amazed by the fruity skills of Nakupelle the clown
• see tennis played as you have never seen it before
• discover extraordinary things that can be done with balloons

And no doubt take photos of them all!

Be prepared to laugh till you drop at this free family friendly event taking place in the heart of the City Centre making term break Tuesday one to remember. Performances will be in seven different locations within the pedestrianised area of the City Centre between 12noon and 4pm.

For more information please contact Stoke-on-Trent Tourist Information Centre on 01782 236000 or email [email protected].

Download the Streets Alive - Flyer/Map as a PDF

(To view PDF Files you need the free Adobe Reader.)

The Big Picture tour of the West Midlands this week has been tiring, but loads of fun. Today we were up especially early to meet BBC Coventry and Warwickshire’s breakfast team and Liz Kershaw by the Lady Godiva statue. It was worth it - as we not only took loads of photos ourselves - but got lots of promises from the people of Coventry to add theirs to the Big Picture website over the weekend. Andrew from BBC Coventry and Warwickshire has even been uploading his.

Then to Birmingham it was - to catch people as they arrived to watch the panto - we even caught some dancers from the Dance Xchange and got them to do a pose we couldn’t dream of copying!

Pictured are Laura Cadlow and Celine Alwyn, from Barebones, the touring company of DanceXchange, getting ready for the International Dance Festival Birmingham.

The Big Picture team spent today in Stoke - and the photos we took there, along with the hundreds you have been adding yourselves, have pushed the current total over 3,000! We met loads of great people, and Kerry continued her media stardom stardom by talking to Max from BBC Radio Stoke about how we were getting on.

Moving on from Tontine Square, we spent the afternoon at Trentham Gardens, where passers by - and their furry friends - were happy to pose!

Knights, Queens and Archbishops were in the frame when The Big Picture team joined the cast of the play Edward II at Warwick Castle today - and Ben Sidwell from Midlands Today was seen chatting to a suit of armour (we thought it was empty, but he may have known better!). If you’d like to watch a little of his report you can see it online.

Earlier in the day we were in Worcester, where people were waiting for us with their photos as we arrived! We set our giant photo frames up outside the Guildhall and took loads of photos, like this one:

When: Tontine Square

Where: Thursday 24 January 10am– 12pm

When: Trentham Gardens

Where: Thursday 24 January 2pm – 4pm

Who: The Big Picture team and giant oversized photo frames

Come and find out more about The Big Picture. Be in it, by stepping into our giant photo frames and take away goodie bags - including disposable cameras.

Tontine Square

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Trentham Gardens

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You may have noticed that the Big Picture website experienced some technical problems yesterday evening - we’re sorry for that, but pleased to say that they’re fixed now.The overwhelming number of visitors to the site, and the huge volume of photos being uploaded since launch on Monday slowed the site right down and in some cases you may not have been able to get to us at all. Our technical gurus worked hard and quickly to sort out these problems and are confident that the site is now much stronger.

Sorry if you experienced these problems but we hope, and are almost certain, that it won’t happen again.

If you have any questions please email us at [email protected] and we’ll do our best to help.

Children from Bridgnorth Endowed school joined The Big Picture team today at Blists Hill Victorian Town in Ironbridge, Shropshire - dressed in costume from their upcoming production of Oliver! - and they sang for BBC Radio Shropshire too.

The Big Picture has already got 1,400 photos in the albums - so keep adding yours and we’ll be on target for that world record. Don’t forget your photos can be of anything that you feel represents your life in the West Midlands – that could be a nice landscape, a building, your family or even your pets - like Tiger here who we met today in Shrewsbury Town Centre:

The Big Picture launches with an exciting week of events around the West Midlands!

Join us near to you to find out more about the world record breaking attempt to create the largest photo montage in the world, and to learn how you can help create the biggest photo album in the West Midlands.

The Big Picture team will be at Wolverhampton Racecourse on Monday with giant oversized photo frames so you really can be in the picture. We’ll have some fantastic giveaways including disposable cameras. In the following days we’ll be in Shropshire, Stoke, Warwick, Coventry and finally Birmingham.

Where we’ll be and when:

Wolverhampton Racecourse - Monday 21 January - 12- 4.30pm

Ironbridge Blists Hill Victorian Town - Tuesday 22 January - 10am – 12pm

Shrewsbury Town Centre - Tuesday 22 January -2pm – 4pm

Worcester Guildhall - Wednesday 23 January - 11am – 2pm

Warwick Castle - Wednesday 23 January - 5.30pm – 7.30pm

Stoke, Tontine Square - Thursday 24 January - 10am– 12pm

Stoke, Trentham Gardens - Thursday 24 January - 2pm – 4pm

Coventry, Lady Godiva - Friday 25 January - 9am – 11am

Birmingham, Hurst Street - Friday 25 January - 1pm – 3pm