IWA is joining with Canal & River Trust and the Birmingham Canals Navigation Society to showcase Birmingham’s Canals with boaters from across the region joining a spectacular Boating Parade.

This parade will be presented as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival, celebrating the people, history and stories of our canals. This is an opportunity to celebrate the past and present – and showcase the variety of crafts, people and culture that make our modern canals so vibrant today.

The Boating Parade will start from the Roundhouse adjacent to Sheepcote Street in the centre of Birmingham at 2pm on Saturday 25th June. Around seventy gaily decorated canal boats will parade slowly from there past Brindley Place to Gas Street Basin and on to the Mailbox. The parade will show a wide range of boats from a variety of original working boats that plied these canals to examples of boats designed for the future with sustainable propulsion systems. They will also be promoting some of the organisations that make todays waterways such a vibrant scene and bring visitors into Birmingham to enjoy them. Several boats will carry IWA banners to recognise the part that we played in the early regeneration of Birmingham’s waterfront from dereliction to the central attraction of the City.

Spectators are welcome to view the spectacle from the various vantage points on the route and take part in the fun and excitement. After boats have paraded past the Mailbox they will continue towards Selly Oak to turn and return to moor in the centre. Throughout the rest of the day and Sunday morning there will be an opportunity to view the boats up close before they leave to return to their home moorings. Spectators will be able to find out about some of significant boats attending through QR codes located on the route.