Get your tickets ready
You should have received your tickets via email for every ticket you have purchased (free or paid).
Each ticket will have a QR code and can be added to your Apple or Google Wallet or presented directly from the email on your phone. The confirmation email will also include PDF versions of your ticket if you want to print them.
If you have not received your tickets please get in touch with us at tickets@birminghamdesign.co.uk letting us know what events you are missing.
When you arrive at the venue please have your tickets ready to be scanned to ensure we can check everyone in quickly.
Getting around Birmingham & our Venues
If you’re taking the train into Birmingham you’ll want to land at either Birmingham New Street or Moor Street as they’re the closest to our venues.
We have four main venues, they are all within a 20 minute walk of each other but please note – due to HS2 and tram work getting to the Digital Hub (printmakers) or Analogue Hub (E H Smith) from Graphic (Parkside) involves a special journey up the canal path. The path between Digital and Analogue has a lot of road works.
We will position our volunteers along the route to help, but you can also check out our handy map and download a copy (it will also be in our printed programmes).
Talks are usually 30 minutes, with 10 minutes Q&A afterwards, so there should be plenty of time to move between venues – but if you have additional access needs you might want to find a route on one of the main roads and take a bit more time between talks.
Head over to our Venues page for individual venue information and more access details.
All venues are easily accessed from the train stations and don’t require any special detours – you should just be able to follow Google Maps.
You can find more information about wheelchair accessibility here.
Remember to pick up your festival pack and programme
We have around 2,000 festival packs to give out over the course of the three days. We will aim to ration these out so that everyone gets a chance to get one regardless of the day they arrive.
The packs will contain our printed programme, some BDF goodies and messages from our sponsors.
Packs and merch will also be available at the evening venues.
What’s happening in the Atrium at BCU Parkside…
Outside of the talks, the atrium in our Graphic Hub at BCU Parkside is always a hive of activity. This is where you’ll meet a most of our sponsors, catch our main Birmingham Design Shop pop-up and can even customise some merch.
Birmingham Design Shop
As always the popular Birmingham Design Shop pop-up will be here to fill your goodie bags with design books and more. There will also be smaller pop-ups at the Digital and Analogue hubs.
(Please note, our shop in the Jewellery Quarter will be closed during the festival – it will all be at Parkside!)
Screenprint your own custom BDF 2026 Merch
This year we’ve teamed up with David Springer to give you the chance to screenprint your own custom BDF tees and totes for 2026 – in honour or our theme of Change.
Corita Cubed Exhibition
Check out the incredible installation in the Parkside Atrium celebrating the work of Sister Corita Kent. Available to view throughout the festival.
Meet our lovely sponsors
Say hello to a plethora of local and international businesses who have helped make BDF 2026 what it is. Show them some love, make sure they come back and help us do it all again in 2027.
BDF 2026 Launch Night
Inspired Festival at BCU – Grad Show Private View
Tue 9th June, 6:00pm–9:00pm at BCU Parkside
We’re excited to open BDF 2026 in collaboration with our long time partners BCU and their incredible students – celebrating another series of outstanding graduates across their University as part of their Inspired Festival.
Join us on Tuesday evening at Parkside for the launch night, attended by thousands from the design industry looking for amazing new talent.
We’ll be stationed in the Atrium, as well as presenting a few awards throughout the night. Come and celebrate the students, have some drinks and nibbles and get set for for BDF 2026.
Street food at BDF
At the Analogue and Digital hubs we will have food vendor Kim Sweetness serving up some delicious Caribbean flavours in the courtyards.
There’s also canteens available at Parkside and Howells (by E H Smith)
Code of Conduct
Please read and follow our Code of Conduct carefully. It’s really important everyone at the festival feels safe and that all participants have a shared understanding of appropriate behaviour.
Anyone found to be in breach of the guidelines will be removed from the festival and their tickets void.
Final thanks and a note about the festival team…
We’d really like to thank all of you for booking tickets to BDF 2026. It’s been quite a hard one to organise, with the industry suffering some turbulence in a city that is undergoing a major regeneration.
The BDF team have worked tirelessly for a year to put on the festival – and if one thing’s for certain it is that unexpected things will happen. Some things will go wrong, many things (hopefully) will go right.
We hope you’ll bear with us whilst we navigate any challenges. It’s a small team with a lot of heart and all of them have worked on the festival in their spare time for free.
If you see a ‘TEAM BDF’ lanyard, give them a high five – and make sure the volunteers get some love too.
A big thank you to our 2026 sponsors, and everyone else who has supported the festival in its eighth year.
Here we go!
See you soon x