What's On in Birmingham

Sea Life Birmingham - Standard Entry — Start the day somewhere genuinely otherworldly: the National SEA LIFE Centre Birmingham opens its doors from 9:30am, and whether you're bringing wide-eyed kids or just indulging your own inner child, the shimmering tanks and tropical creatures never get old. It's one of the city's most reliably magical attractions, and a brilliant antidote to the summer heat outside. Check the website for current ticket prices and to book your slot.

DEL CAMINO + Salsa Taster Thu 25th June Live at The Jam House Birmingham — The Jam House is one of Birmingham's most beloved live music venues, and on Thursday night it's turning the temperature up even further with Del Camino and a salsa taster session from 7:00pm. Come for the Latin rhythms, stay because you've discovered you're a better dancer than you ever imagined — this is the kind of evening that starts as a gig and ends as a full-blown party. Check the website for tickets; it's a brilliant midweek escape.

Bilmuri - The Kinda Hard Tour — If you like your Thursday nights loud and unapologetic, Bilmuri rolls into the O2 Academy Birmingham at 7:00pm on the Kinda Hard Tour, promising a set that sits somewhere between pop-punk energy and metalcore muscle. The O2 Academy is the perfect room for this — big enough to feel like an event, intimate enough to feel every riff in your chest. Check the website for tickets before they're gone.

Rebecca Downes — Kings Heath's Hare and Hounds is one of those venues that punches well above its weight, and Rebecca Downes — a powerhouse blues-rock vocalist with a voice that sounds like it was forged in the Mississippi Delta — is exactly the kind of act that belongs on its stage. Doors from 7:30pm and tickets at £17, this is a proper grown-up gig for anyone who believes guitar music still has something vital to say. Do not sleep on this one.

Superchunk — Also at the Hare and Hounds at 7:30pm, North Carolina indie-rock legends Superchunk bring three-plus decades of glorious noise to Kings Heath for £21. They invented a certain kind of jangly, heart-on-sleeve rock and roll that influenced half the bands you love, and seeing them live is a reminder of just how thrilling a great song played with conviction can be. If you've never caught them before, this is the night to fix that.

Nightingale Club Thursdays — Birmingham's iconic Nightingale Club has been a cornerstone of the city's LGBTQ+ nightlife for decades, and Thursday nights are a proper institution — kicking off at 10:00pm and priced at just £5 on the door. It's welcoming, it's unpretentious, and the dancefloor has a warmth that bigger clubs rarely manage. Whether it's your first time or your hundredth, you'll leave wondering why you don't do this every week.