Entertainment News

Family business Slater’s Ales has opened its doors for business in Wolverhampton’s Queen Square. The award-winning brewery has developed its first premises outside of Staffordshire by transforming three floors of a Grade II-listed building previously occupied by Costa Coffee into a craft-ale bar. The original features of the building have been restored while there is also an industrial feel throughout.

Marvel families unite! For the first time ever, iconic Marvel Super Heroes and villains will be brought to life in a spectacular live action family arena show, when Marvel Universe LIVE! Super Heroes Assembletouches down in the UK this September. This show is taking the live entertainment experience to a whole new level, with an epic show unlike anything seen before.

In the year in which the RSC marks the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, Well Said!, a free, family-friendly exhibition will celebrate some of the most famous lines in the English language. Renowned author Margaret Atwood, award-winning playwright Tanika Gupta MBE, comedian, writer and actor Russell Kane, and forthcoming RSC Hamlet lead Paapa Essiedu are among 12 eminent writers, actors and poets who have shared their favourite Shakespeare quotes with the RSC.

Health chiefs are inviting families to get ‘Sugar Smart’ when the Change4Life roadshow comes to Wolverhampton this weekend. Its Sugar Smart campaign is touring the country, visiting 25 shopping centres nationwide. Families joining the roadshow at the Wulfrun Centre this Saturday and Sunday will be able to see live demonstrations of the new Sugar Smart app and get free information packs and ask staff questions about sugar. 

Students and public alike are being invited to a special portrait exhibition to inspire them to fundraise for vulnerable children who have to spend hours every week looking after loved ones. Hidden, organised by national charity The Children’s Society and featuring a series of powerful photographs of young carers, is coming to Winterbourne House on Wednesday 24 February for one day only.

Oxfam is searching for inspiring individuals to be Takeover Managers, leading teams of talented volunteers for this year’s legendary Oxjam music festival in October. Oxjam is the nation’s local music festival, showcasing the best emerging talent from Shoreditch to Shetland. Every October towns and cities across the UK are taken over during Oxfam’s month of music, with hundreds of gigs organised by volunteers.

With the UK fashion industry currently worth £26 billion to the country's economy, spending on fashion and accessories for pets is likely to continue to rise as a result of a growing trend of ‘humanisation’ and wearable technology for animals. Pet fashion items have an extremely long history, with the evidence of dog collars being used as far back as 3100 BC.

Rose and Star meet at a child welfare home for abandoned kids and form a special bond. They come from similar backgrounds, but they have something else in common, too: a love of cats. The young girls rescue two small felines under strange circumstances. Shadow is found hiding in a pit during a forest fire, and Pearl is saved from an attack of angry squirrels.

Jurassic World has been chosen by nearly a quarter of people in Birmingham as the ultimate IMAX film, in a survey that sees local cinema-goers vote for the IMAX blockbusters they most want to see back on the big screen. The top voted IMAX film, Jurassic World, will return to Cineworld Birmingham NEC and Cineworld Birmingham Broad Street for the first-ever IMAX Film Festival on Saturday 27^th February 2016.

Wolverhampton Grand Theatre and Dudley Zoological Gardens have announced a pantomime sponsorship that will see both companies work together in the run up to this year’s magical pantomime adventure – Aladdin. The Grand Theatre pantomime attracts thousands of families to Wolverhampton each year, as does a collection of the world’s rarest animals who find their home in the grounds of an 11^th Century castle at Dudley Zoological Gardens.

Geoffrey Barraclough believes that there cannot be many mature people on Earth who have not thought about, even, if only fleetingly, who they really are and why they are who they are. “Who Am I? What Am I? Why Am I here?” helps people answer the questions that they may have and ultimately lead them to enlightenment.

After India's top film producer, Karan Johar, finished a film shot in Innsbruck, Austria, tourism officials in this country are confident it created a new magnet for Indian visitors. The movie, Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, with stars Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma draw a picture of Austria needed to interest travelers to eye Innsbruck as an Indian travel destination. Ms. C. Mukerji, who heads the Austria National Tourist Office in India, said that ANTO Austria is also launching a new website and a new campaign soon.

A ground-breaking exhibition of the works of sculptor, engraver and painter Salvador Dali will open on Saturday 27 February 2016 in the museum space of Liège's Guillemins Railway station. It will be the largest exhibition devoted to the Spanish artist ever organised in Belgium. 

The Dutch theme park Efteling, located in the southern Netherlands, is to open its new attraction 'Symbolica: Palace of Fantasy' in summer 2017.  It will be the largest and most expensive Efteling attraction ever.  Symbolica will be a 'dark ride', an indoor attraction for the whole family, and similar to other Efteling attractions such as 'Droomvlucht', Fata Morgana and Carnaval Festival.  The new attraction will revolve around the interplay of reality, dream and fantasy.  

The 10th anniversary of Slam Dunk Festival has just announced a further eight bands to the line-up. Yellowcard will be playing the festival for the first time and will play their huge album 'Ocean Avenue' in full, in a world exclusive. "I think we owe so much of the success we have been so lucky to have to Ocean Avenue." says Ryan Key. "We have built an incredible touring career on six continents over the last 15 years.

Due to overwhelming public demand, master magician Dynamo has added a final 11 extra shows to his critically acclaimed UK tour, Seeing Is Believing. The new dates will see the show return to cities across the country including Birmingham on the 26 and 27 March 2016 for three incredible performances.  By the final show on 2 April, Dynamo will have performed a spectacular 111 shows, spellbinding more than 400,000 fans across the country.