Centenary Square Becomes Champions Square for a Free Four-Day Fan Zone in August
Source: magnific.com
Centenary Square will be renamed Champions Square and host a free four-day fan zone from August 13 to 16, 2026, timed to coincide with the European Athletics Championships. According to Birmingham Live, the event will bring a big screen, live music, circus performances, and a full programme of family entertainment to Birmingham city centre at no cost to attendees.
Reading the Field from the City Centre
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“The live big-screen experience makes probability visible. You see the gap open, the athlete press, the field respond — and your brain is already calculating. That appetite for reading a situation, weighing the variables, finding the edge — it travels.”
The Champions Square fan zone, with its central screen showing the championships as they unfold, provides precisely that kind of live, unmediated atmosphere.
Britain’s First European Athletics Championships, at Alexander Stadium
The fan zone draws its significance from the scale of what is happening at Alexander Stadium. The European Athletics Championships are coming to Britain for the first time, a milestone that sets the 2026 summer apart from any preceding major-event summer the city has staged.
More than 1,600 athletes from 48 nations will compete across the championships, making Alexander Stadium the focal point for elite track and field across Europe. For fans without stadium access, Champions Square offers a city-centre alternative that brings the competition to one of Birmingham’s most recognisable public spaces.
A Full Festival Programme, Curated by OPUS
The entertainment offer inside Champions Square extends well beyond a large screen. The programme includes live music, dance, street theatre, circus performances, and interactive family activities, all free to attend across the four days.
Outdoor Places Unusual Spaces, known as OPUS, has been appointed to curate the cultural programme. The organisation produced the Birmingham Light Festival earlier in 2026, and brings that experience of animating public space with large-scale, accessible programming to Champions Square. The event is explicitly designed to recapture the atmosphere of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games, when the city demonstrated an ability to blend elite sport with a surrounding festival of community and culture that drew broad public participation.
The ambition is clear from that framing. Circus performances and street theatre alongside athletics coverage means Champions Square is conceived as a destination in its own right, not merely an overflow watching zone. The mix of disciplines across the programme reflects an intention to draw in audiences who may arrive for the music or the family activities and stay for the sport, or vice versa.
Local Creators Invited to Apply Before July 20
Funding for the programme comes from Birmingham City Council’s Together on Culture Magnets and Moonshots programme. An open call has been launched inviting local creators to apply to perform at the fan zone, with a deadline of Monday, July 20 at 11:59pm.
Coun Deborah Harries, cabinet member for culture at Birmingham City Council, framed the championships as the centrepiece of a broader summer.
“The European Athletics Championships is the cornerstone of an exciting summer of sport in Birmingham,” she said, adding that major events of this kind “not only underline Birmingham’s credentials as a world class city of sport but also provide an opportunity to showcase our wider cultural offer to residents and visitors alike.”
Harries also addressed the open call directly. “We look forward to seeing the city’s creativity come to life on stage during the championships,” she said.
Local performers and creators have until 11:59pm on July 20 to submit applications, with Champions Square opening on August 13.