http://belfastcity.gov.uk/belfastmusic

Belfast Music, Belfast (2026)

30/12/2025

2025 was a year where Belfast’s UNESCO City of Music status came into sharp focus ✨

Internationally, we were represented at the UNESCO Creative City of Music Forum in Daegu, collaborating with cities from across the global network. Those relationships fed directly back into activity at home, including visiting artists & collectives from fellow UNESCO Cities of Music. A standout moment saw sustainability-led performance group HOOLA spend time in Belfast delivering performances and workshops rooted in climate awareness and community participation.

At home, Belfast music continued to thrive. As well as the release of countless incredible albums (more on that tomorrow!) Sound of Belfast unfolded across dozens of venues, showcasing the depth and range of the city’s scene and reinforcing Belfast’s reputation as a place where genres & generations intersect rather than compete.

Support for artists remained central, with various Belfast City Council-supported initiatives played a crucial role in building early & sustainable pathways. These included CQAF Music Bursaries, helping artists develop new work, and continued investment through the Music Venue Trust grant programme, supporting grassroots venues as vital creative infrastructure.

Platforms for Belfast talent remained strong. BBC Introducing LIVE returned as part of the Belfast International Arts Festival, the NI Music Prize proved world class, Boiler Room took over, and festivals such as Bounce Arts Festival foregrounded inclusive & accessible music-making across interdisciplinary performance.

Elsewhere, Ulster Orchestra’s appointment of Anna Handler as Chief Conductor signalled confidence in Belfast as a place for ambitious orchestral futures, while new public artworks celebrating our City of Music status, supported by the City Council, embedded music into the city’s streetscape.
Taken together, 2025 showed a music city built on connection: artists travelling out and being welcomed in, young musicians supported early, venues protected and international relationships grounded in real exchange rather than symbolism.

We can’t wait to see - and document - what the next 12 months holds 🔥

18/12/2025

Out to Lunch Festival is back in Cathedral Quarter this January and it’s shaping up as one of its strongest editions yet.

The sister festival to the legendary Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival each May, Out to Lunch more than holds its own in our UNESCO City of Music. Built around affordable live music, comedy, theatre, spoken word and more, it’s long been the thing that ensures there’s plenty to do early doors every year, setting the tone for Belfast’s cultural calendar before spring even arrives.

If you’re winding down now but already eyeing up gigs for the new year, consider this sorted. Between 9th-31st January, the festival brings an abundance of live music alongside talks, screenings & left-field moments across the city.

On the bill: living legend Yann Tiersen, Wookalilly & 20 Years of Crilli DNB at Ulster Sports Club, The Darkling Air with the Arco String Quartet, Lemoncello, Céili for Lunch, and plenty more besides. In short, you won’t be stuck for things to do!

A heads-up though: tickets are moving fast. Check out the full programme below 🎶

🔗 https://cqaf.com/

10/12/2025

Our UNESCO City of Music could not be more buzzing this side of 2026 ✨

As part of Belfast City Council’s Christmas in Belfast programme, Snow Water is filling City Hall, St George’s Market & Grand Central Station with brass bands, choirs, harpists, soloists, carol singers & NI Music Prize winners, drifting through the afternoons and early evenings every Thursday to Sunday.

Oh Yeah Music Centre is carrying its own momentum too, with young performers stepping up for the Youth Open Mic, its punk walking tour tracing everything from The Outcasts and Rudi to the bands shaping the scene now, and Dark Tropics rounding off their year with a final headliner. It’s a hub that continues to show just how broad the music community is here, constantly renewing itself while pulling its stories forward.

Over at the Waterfront, the Belfast Community Gospel Choir return with their annual Christmas concert, a warm, full-hearted night, while the Ulster Orchestra's Magic of Christmas continues the tradition of big festive gatherings. Northern Ireland Opera add their own note later in the month in Sailortown, joining community choirs for a free evening at St Joseph’s.

Lavery's is deep into its Christmas Market programme, with musicians taking over its spaces throughout December. Belfast Groove Collective bring their long-running improvisational energy back to Bradbury Place, and Donal Scullion appears with his house band, moving between originals and unexpected covers with a looseness that suits winter crowds.

And then there are the bigger anchors in the calendar: ASH at the Ulster Hall, And So I Watch You From Afar in the same iconic space with the Ulster Orchestra, a stellar Limelight Belfast bill with Gurriers, Makeshift Art Bar and Enola Gay, the Mary Wallopers at The SSE Arena, Belfast, and late-December shows from Kíla at the Black Box and Doghouse at Voodoo Belfast keeping the pulse up between the holidays. New Year’s Eve is already taking shape, with The Night Institute taking over Titanic Distillers. Have other plans? Catch them at Ulster Sports Club on 13th Dec!

It’s a month where the city carries its soundtrack everywhere you go. Follow all these venues to see everything ahead - this is only a fraction of it 🎶

05/12/2025

Today, we’re spotlighting someone whose fingerprints are everywhere in Belfast music: from the LPs he’s mastered & the music he’s made, to the tribute nights he’s led & the friendships he’s built through years of showing up.

Step forward: the one & only Joel Harkin.

Joel recently took the leap into full-time music: mastering, gigging, pedal steel, the lot. Leaving the safety of a day job was scary, but the timing landed and the work was there. “I’m pure happy to be able to work in this capacity in the scene now. It’s genuinely a dream come true.”

Community runs through everything he does. “All my muckers are a part of it. It’s supposed to be difficult to make friends as an adult but the majority of the people I know, I know through the scene. We’re all in it together. It’s wholesome!”

Then there’s the pedal steel. A lifelong Bright Eyes fan, he’d wanted one for years before a friend spotted one in Cash Converters. “I’m happy to say it did not break my heart.” And his favourite moment so far: “Someone asked me if it was an oboe.”
He’s also been vocal about streaming inequality. “I’m fairly certain it’s not royalties generated from streaming keeping artists afloat. And if it is, it’d only be a fraction of what they’ve earned and deserve.”

This year’s I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning tribute showed his heart for collaboration. “Imagine playing one of the best LPs ever written with seventeen of your best muckers. I’m very lucky.” And on connecting with his hero Oberst in June: “Our foreheads touched, that was nice.”

On his own acclaimed craft, Harkin said: “I used to finish a song and think, ‘right, that’s the last decent one I’ll write probably,’ but luckily there’s always been another one a bit further down the line.”

And what gives him hope for Belfast? “There’s some serious tunes coming out of here, but aside from the music, everyone is pure dead on. People show up and are happy to help with something when they can.” He also points to the rise in organising, from the Musicians’ Union to CATU.

Organisers and people doing their part to make the world better for the many rather than the few are what gives me the most hope for the future.”

Take a bow, Joel 🙌

https://joelharkin.bandcamp.com/

04/12/2025

Dani Larkin is closing out another massive year, solidifying her status within our buzzing UNESCO City of Music scene and gearing up for an even bigger 2026.

A defining moment of her year was snagging the first-ever PRS for Music NI Creator of the Year Award at the NI Music Prize ceremony right here in Belfast last month. It was her first music award ever, a huge milestone as she pushes forward internationally.

The buzz is all about her upcoming second album, Next of Kin, dropping January 23rd. Leading the charge is her brand new single ‘High King,’ a sublime effort with a suitably meant-to-be origin story.

As she shared: “I wrote ‘High King’ in an airport in Paris in 2022. It was my birthday and I’d just flown from Belfast to London for a whirlwind few days of music industry things and then got the train to Paris to perform at the Centre Culturel Irlandais. By the time I made it to a very empty Charles De Gaulle on the way home I was ready for the silence that a deserted airport allows. I had my little gretsch with me and High King tumbled out. In many ways it felt like time stood still in that airport. I remember relishing in the silence. Perhaps I willed time into stopping just long enough for a song. And now it’s yours, High King.”

The single is a perfect taster for the extensive UK and Ireland tour she’s just announced, with a string of Irish dates coming up in March and April 2026. She’s also locked in for the legendary Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow in January.

Learn more and get tickets: https://www.danilarkin.com/tour

Listen to High King: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQzcsxZjleo

04/12/2025

Last call for today’s Belfast Stories online session!

From 2-4pm, the project team will be sharing the latest proposals for one of the city’s most significant future cultural developments: a space that will shape how Belfast supports & showcases its creative industries, including music 🎶

It’s an open, interactive session where you can hear what’s being developed & share your own thoughts directly through the chat. If you care about the future of culture in the city, this is a good moment to be part of the conversation.

Register here:

d90dbbe8-912e-45b2-9672-5614c609fb3e@74bce895-6943-495c-98af-fa3c5afbd335" rel="ugc" target="_blank">https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/d90dbbe8-912e-45b2-9672-5614c609fb3e@74bce895-6943-495c-98af-fa3c5afbd335

02/12/2025

Belfast Comes Alive Under a Christmas Sky 🎶✨

Every weekend from now until 21 December, Belfast City Council and Snow Water are filling the city centre with free live music celebrating our UNESCO City of Music status.

Think: brass bands under winter lights, NI Music Prize winners on Royal Avenue, jazz trios drifting through Grand Central Station, choirs raising the roof at City Hall and carols that hit you right in the chest (lyrics provided, if you’re feeling brave).

Snow Water marks its 10th anniversary by showcasing some of NI’s finest

Taylor Lally, Tessio, Sasha Samara, Rory Nellis, Aqua Tofana, Sophie French, Charlie Hanlon, incredible soloists like Petra Wells, Rachael Heater and Dessie Havlin, plus choirs from Hazelwood Integrated to Renaissance Chamber and a huge finale with Belfast Community Gospel Choir.

Expect everything from Darlene Love to Nat King Cole, Tchaikovsky to Taylor Swift, Mariah to Silent Night.

It’s joy and pure Belfast magic, free and for everyone.

📍 City Hall, Royal Avenue, Grand Central Station
📅 Thurs & Fri: 5.30-7.30pm
📅 Sat & Sun: 2-5pm
🎟️ Free, always.

Full schedule below. Wrap up and wander in!

https://www.belfastcity.gov.uk/Events/Music-programme-Under-a-Christmas-Sky

01/12/2025

What began as the quiet, solitary world of Belfast songwriter Jake McCrea has, in the space of a year, become something far bigger and more communal. Up until mid-2024 Moon Landing was essentially a one-man project; now it’s a band in the truest sense: a small constellation of players orbiting the same emotional centre.

Long-time confidant Niall Devlin, drummer Conor Keenan, trumpeter Dan Monaghan and bassist Ethan Hollan bring their own colour and pace to the table, turning Moon Landing into a gang with its own gravitational pull 🌕

Their new EP, We’ll Come Back Again As Birds, recorded by Michael Bell and launched to a packed Ulster Sports Club, captures that shift with startling clarity. These four songs (‘Streetflowers,’ ‘Echoes,’ ‘It’s Big Small World’ and the quietly devastating closer ‘All Our Friends (Have Moved Away)’) move with the sweep of cinema and the tenderness of a diary entry. The sound is Technicolour but grounded, widescreen but deeply rooted in lived experience.

If their 2023 debut Blink Once and Miss the World Go By hinted at promise - NI Music Prize nomination, Chordblossom Kickstart win and a flurry of Ones to Watch nods - this new chapter feels like the actual take-off. The band’s recent run of headline shows, festival stages and a spellbinding support slot for Mercury Rev all point in the same direction of something special.

Part of the magic is the chemistry. Each member is thriving in their own creative projects, and when they meet in Moon Landing the effect is almost supergroup-like in how naturally their instincts lock together. The songs glow with the feeling of people who trust each other completely.

With extensive touring planned through 2026, We’ll Come Back Again As Birds reads as both a milestone and a promise. A band that began as one person’s inner world has become a fully shared language, and they’re only just starting to speak it.

Follow Moon Landing for what’s next and listen to the EP below

https://moonlandingni.bandcamp.com/album/well-come-back-again-as-birds

28/11/2025

The Duncairn, one of Belfast’s most inspiring creative spaces - and a cornerstone of our UNESCO City of Music - has opened its annual Young Artist Open Call for 2025.

If you’re aged 16-25 and working in music, this is a rare opportunity to connect with a venue that has quietly shaped some of the strongest new talent in the city.

The Duncairn consistently backs emerging artists, helped in part through Belfast City Council-supported initiatives such as the Music Venue Trust grant, the Gradam Ceoil bursary, support for the Irish Traditional Music Collective, and wider investment across the grassroots. These projects all play a role in building real pathways for young musicians and creatives across Belfast.

Now, they’re looking for musicians, as well as writers, performers, producers, composers - anyone at the beginning of their musical journey who’s ready to take the next step and develop their craft in a genuinely supportive environment.

Whether you’re working on your first tracks or trying to find your place in the scene, this is one to apply for

Deadline: Friday 19th December at 12pm

🔗 Apply via the link below and tag and share with anyone looking for to make moves!

https://form.typeform.com/to/AtOMI7ZQ

27/11/2025

Three weeks out. One massive night incoming.

To mark 20 years, And So I Watch You From Afar return to Ulster Hall for their most ambitious show yet, joined by the full Ulster Orchestra and special guests Huartan.

In the band’s own words:

“We can think of no better way to celebrate 20 years of ASIWYFA than taking to the stage at the one and only Ulster Hall. As if that’s not enough, we’ll be joined by the entire Ulster Orchestra. No better location for The Great ASIWYFA Summit of the Ages. It’s beautiful to imagine people coming from near and far to be part of it.”

A once-in-a-generation homecoming. Don’t miss it!

Last tickets: https://www.ulsterhall.co.uk/what-s-on/and-so-i-watch-you-from-afar/

27/11/2025

Big news for the city’s musical life today: the Ulster Orchestra has announced that internationally acclaimed German-Colombian conductor Anna Handler will take up the role of Chief Conductor from September 2026.

Handler arrives at a remarkable moment in her career, fresh from debuting with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, serving as Kapellmeister at Deutsche Oper Berlin and working as Assistant Conductor in Boston. Her connection with musicians and audiences has already been turning heads here, including a standout recent performance in Derry~Londonderry.

Across the next three years, she and the Orchestra will explore what it means to be “an orchestra that belongs to now,” both curious and opening its sound to the future.

Her first concert as Chief Conductor will open the Orchestra’s 60th anniversary season at the Ulster Hall on 25 September 2026.

Wonderful news for Belfast’s place as a UNESCO City of Music and for the musical life of the whole region.

Explore UO’s upcoming schedule: https://www.ulsterorchestra.org.uk/

📸 Peter Rigaud

25/11/2025

The Sounds Atypical Music Grant Scheme has officially reopened for 2026.

Delivered by University of Atypical for Arts and Disability and funded by Belfast City Council, this scheme supports d/Deaf, disabled and neurodivergent musicians, promoters, collectives and organisations creating work across the city.

This year’s fund builds on the huge success of last year’s launch, which awarded £25,000 across six artists and collectives: a milestone moment for disabled-led music in Belfast. The 2025 programme it helped reshape how accessibility lives in practice, with events featuring BSL/ISL interpretation, audio description, quiet spaces, step-free access and more.

Now it’s back, with grants of £1,000-£5,000 (rounded to the nearest £500), plus separate access cost support, for projects taking place between 1st April and 31st December 2026.

If you’re building new work, planning an event or creating opportunities for disabled musicians and audiences, this is a major chance to push things forward!

Full info and apply: https://universityofatypical.org/awards-and-opportunities

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