I'm a little late to the party with this announcement as the first event is scheduled to kick off in the grounds of Belfast City Hall today at 12 midday, but we'll press on and try to do the week long activities justice lol 😇
Helpful Information Sources
So what are we talking about here, first things first a helpful translation for anyone interested:
- Fleadh (phonetically 'flah') - Festival
- Cheoil (phonetically 'ky-ole') - of music
- na hÉireann (phonetically 'nah hair-in') of Ireland
Simples, Festival of music of Ireland
The Opening Belfast City Hall Gig
Expect some 'serious' entertainment, the main stage will be the focal point for the opening days celebrations. Importantly (and going out of my way to stress this early on), Cross-community and multicultural performances will set the tone for the entire week of music. Hot off the heels of the 12th of July Celebrations (actually held of 13th July this year) in Belfast, the City is quickly making a real name for itself as a Musical Capital of the UK.
Interestingly Belfast is supposedly Ireland’s only UNESCO City of Music left, I wasn't even aware it held that status!?
If I had to sum it up in a nutshell: Performers, dancers and musicians from all across Ireland and around the rest of the world, brought together for a special collaboration of the very best in traditional music, song and dance.
Specifically for the fist gig, theres going to be a special collaborative performance from the host branch, Ards CCÉ, the South Asian Dance Academy and Belfast Bands Forum, also some Highland pipers and champion Irish dancers led by Riverdance legend Lauren Smyth.
Towards the evening some performances are planned from a number of acts,
- Blackwater Céilí Band
- Shaer
- Moss & Warnock Trio
- Goitse
Sharon Shannon legendary accordian player with her Big Band are scheduled to bring the opening day gig to a close. For anybody that fancies a taste: The Galway Girl & Music For A Found Harmonium - Sharon Shannon Trio Cropredy 2022
An 8-Day Event!
That's right you read that correctly this is an 8 day event that is taking over large swathes of Belfast City Centre and sprawling out from there to other parts of the City and further a field. Venues and performances will be springing up here, there and everywhere, there is actually a cool live map to help people track what's currently going on and help decide where they might want to be, to hear or see what they are interested in:
Belfast Fleadh Guide - Live Map
As mentioned, the scope of the festival is so vast that the decision was taken to temporarily pedestrianize parts of the inner City Centre, starting in the Cathedral Quarter and fanning out from there. More specific details of the City Centre operations available from this nifty map:
Festival Attendance
Some crazy numbers are doing the rounds, but unconfirmed, there were suggestions based off the back of ticket sales (unsubstantiated) of potential footfall of 100,000 people a day, so 800,000 for the week which is nuts for a City the size of Belfast, so I reckon a little padding or creative license has been added to those figures lol.
Belfast Council has taken the situation pretty seriously, so much so that they are not solely relying on the Cities Hotel and B&B offerings, and have actually setup temporary Campsite and motorhome areas within the City limits.
- Titanic Quarter, Caravans & Campervans
- Ormeau Park, Tents only Campsite
The Hype!
The build up has been fairly quiet, personally think it could have been promoted a bit more but that being said, fingers crossed for an epic 8 day festival. I'm looking forward to sharing some more content on the Festival as it unfolds! :)
Hoping to see lots of this popping up while I'm out and about around the City!
