Embark on a cultural odyssey at Belfast International Arts Festival

Running from 16 October – 23 November, Belfast International Arts Festival will present the best international and homegrown artists in an exciting season of contemporary arts and cultural events. The program is hugely diverse, reflecting a modern, cosmopolitan Belfast, and includes top artists from across the world.

One of the music highlights will be a performance by Les Amazones d’Afrique (28 October), a collective of West African female musicians renowned for their unique blend of traditional African rhythms and contemporary sounds. The arts meet advocacy with the group’s blend of vibrant energy, intricate harmonies, and compelling lyrics that address issues of gender equality and social justice.

On 29 October, at Belfast’s Grand Opera House, blues legends Paul Jones and Dave Kelly, and masterful Irish singer-songwriter Freddie White, present an evening of Blues & Ballads.

The festival also features an eclectic range of theatre including The Vanishing Elephant by Charles Way for Cahoots which comes to Belfast following a highly successful off-Broadway run. The family spectacle is an epic tale of friendship and adventure that features extraordinary on-stage puppetry.

Showing throughout the festival at the Ulster Museum is Threads of Empowerment: Conflict Textiles’ International Journey. The exhibition displays 29 textiles from individuals and communities across the world who have experienced violence and conflict, human rights violations, poverty, oppression, and environmental issues.

From 24 –25 October at the Telegraph Building, Solab, a new collective led by Kwame Daniels, presents North Star. The ambitious live show will feature music and literature, all deeply rooted in Black music and cultures and inspired by the historic speech given by orator, writer and abolitionist Frederick Douglass in Belfast in 1845.

North Star is one of three signature events that Belfast International Arts Festival is presenting as part of Belfast 2024, a year-long program of exciting projects and events celebrating the city’s people, creativity, and cultural vibrancy. The other events featuring in the festival are Touch, Hear, Feel and ROOTS.

In Touch, Hear, Feel art is felt, heard, and understood in ways that transcend the traditional visual realm. The installation will create a unique opportunity for audiences to physically engage with the work, breaking down the barrier between observer and art.

ROOTS is a unique performance that blends dance, poetry, storytelling, and active participation. In this event, art and nature intertwine to rewrite the narrative of Belfast’s public spaces as audiences watch, listen, move, touch, and connect in an engaging journey to transform a shared but contested space at Belfast’s ‘million brick’ peace wall.

Belfast International Arts Festival has been awarded a Silver Green Tourism Award reflecting its commitment to making its activities and events as sustainable and environmentally friendly as possible.

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