BELFAST'S Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival will return this month with another packed programme of music, comedy, spoken word, theatre and film.
The 22nd Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival (CQAF) will run from April 28 to May 8 and brings 150 events to venues across Belfast.
Musical highlights will include Soul II Soul, Echo & The Bunnymen, Mogwai, Kae Tempest, Penguin Café, BC Camplight, Dani Larkin, Altered Images, Corduroy, Bell X1, Richard Hawley, London African Gospel Choir present the Bob Marley Songbook, Declan O'Rourke, Teddy Thompson, Aja performing the music of Steely Dan, Roddy Woomble, Explosion Sound System and GoGo Penguin.
The programme of comedy, poetry and spoken word features John Cooper Clarke, Hollie McNish, Bonnie Greer, Roy Walker, John Shuttleworth, David Keenan in conversation with Wendy Erskine, the Nina Simone inspired Black is the Colour of my Life, Lucy Porter, Simon Armitage, Tadhg Hickey and Shaparak Khorsandi.
A packed CQAF film programme includes a screening of Bill Forsyth's Comfort and Joy with an introduction from star Clare Grogan, Monty Python and The FOLEY Grail (the Monty Python classic 're-imagined') and Bollywood classic The Heart Desires, plus documentaries including Freakscene: The Dinosuar Jr Story, St Vincent's The Nowhere Inn, Keyboard Fantasies about the life and work of electronic music auteur and queer icon Glenn Coupland, Anthony Bourdain doc Roadrunner and Wattstax, the little-seen film of the original 'black Woodstock'.
CQAF also continues its association with Belfast's internationally acclaimed street art festival Hit the North, while other events will include the Belfast Whiskey Tour, a Traditional Bread Baking Workshop, Dress up, Drink and Draw, Skull Drawings with Duncan Ross, S**t Show Shambles – a Gameshow Extravaganza, Mark Ann McCracken's Walking Tour of Historic Belfast and the CQ Bazaar at Common Market.
Festival-goers can also enjoy one-person theatre shows from Bear and Mustard, 'in conversation' with acclaimed Bowie album cover designer and musician Jonathan Barnbrook, Poetry at The Sunflower with The Lifeboat Press and Bad Betty Press, an evening of prose and poetry from The Tangerine's contributors past and present, plus newly commission performance art from the BBeyond.
Festival director Sean Kelly said: "It's been a turbulent couple of years, but we're beyond delighted to be able to present our first fully live Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival since 2019.
"It's also great to be able to expand the festival into some of the most interesting spaces available in the city centre – such as St Joseph's Church in Sailortown, The Indian Community Centre, and 2 Royal Avenue, which some people might better know as the former Tesco.
"Of course we realise that Covid hasn't gone away, and we'll be exercising the appropriate safety precautions and encouraging patrons to do the same. But most importantly it feels good to be bringing great live events back to Belfast."
Noirin McKinney, director of arts development, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, adds:
"What an exciting line-up from Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, an annual highlight in the Northern Ireland calendar of events.
"This terrific festival not only brings world-class performers to Belfast but also offers an important platform to showcase artists from here, helping to shine a light on the talent
that is inherent to NI.
"It's truly heartening to see live events return for all to enjoy and we wish Sean and the team every success with this year's festival."
:: See cqaf.com for ticket info and full festival programme.
