Belfast International Arts Festival, the city’s longest-running celebration of arts and culture, has officially revealed the line-up for its 62nd edition with a bumper five-week programme of events taking place city-wide this autumn that features artists from 16 different countries across five continents.
The festival returns from 16 October – 23 November with a new season of contemporary arts and culture in over 30 venues across Belfast and features the very best international and homegrown artists from the worlds of theatre, dance, music, visual arts, literature and film.
An exhilarating line-up of new theatre shows lead the festival’s opening, including the premieres of The Tragedy of Richard III, a Lyric Theatre production of the timeless Shakespearean tragedy adapted by Michael Patrick and Oisín Kearney; Yerma, a dark and seductive telling of Lorca’s powerful tragedy set in contemporary Ireland, adapted and directed by Patrick J O’Reilly for Tinderbox Theatre; Aurora: A Modern Myth, a new work which challenges audiences to rethink their relationship with nature, by Dominic Montague for Prime Cut Productions; and, fresh from its hugely successful off-Broadway run,The Vanishing Elephant by Cahoots, an epic tale of friendship and adventure that features extraordinary on-stage puppetry.
Continuing its support for Northern Ireland’s thriving contemporary dance community, the festival will present Touch, Hear, Feel, an ambitious new project by dancer/visual artist and current festival Artist-in-residence Helen Hall, commissioned by Belfast 2024, which transcends the visual realm and invites audiences to reimagine the way we experience art, and, by Michael McEvoy, The Gate House, a journey through three generations of Belfast stories. All these productions feature in the first major showcase of theatre and dance that Belfast International Arts Festival is hosting for visiting arts programmers from across the world. This very special event promoting the best of our local talent to the international arts community is generously supported by Culture Ireland and Belfast City Council and delivered in partnership with both Theatre and Dance NI and British Council NI.
The festival will also present dance from farther afield, including an evening of performance from Palestine exploring the trauma of war through movement and sound in a double bill of Losing It from Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre and In Between by Esam Sultan, in partnership with Féile an Phobail. Luail, the new all island dance company makes its NI debut with Impasse by Mufutau Yusef whilst free performances of the hugely entertaining and acrobatic Wild from Motionhouse take place at CS Lewis Square, as part of a wider programme strand of free performances and community engagement called Embrace.
BBC Introducing LIVE returns for its second year with a line-up that includes rising stars Le Boom, CHERYM, Dea Matrona and TRAMP; Ciaran Lavery melds his distinctive sound with musical theatre in an immersive live music experience that follows the artist’s battle against crippling creative self-doubt; Les Amazones d'Afrique, the all-female west African supergroup, fuse African heritage with contemporary pop to champion the rights of women and girls; and blues legends Paul Jones and Dave Kelly, and the masterful Irish singer-songwriter Freddie White, present an evening of Blues & Ballads, with special guests the Ulster Orchestra.
The festival’s Talks & Ideas strand brings together international and local writers, including Michael Longley, one of the great poets of the last century, who celebrates his 85th birthday this year, and The Damned Utd author David Peace, whose latest novel, Munichs, the third entry in his football-themed trilogy, publishes later this year. The festival also welcomes three celebrated writers from Trinidad and Jamaica to Belfast: Passiontide author Monique Roffey, Hungry Ghosts author Kevin Jared Hosein, and Safiya Sinclair.
The festival’s customary schedule is extended into mid-November to include several special events celebrating the 175th anniversary of the Belfast School of Art at Ulster University, including talks from Colin Davidson, Alice Maher and an evening of reflections on the enduring legacy of German artist Joseph Beuys in Northern Ireland from Dr Sandra Johnson and Anna Liesching. Outburst Queer Arts Festival and Ulster Presents will host Mixtape #1, a new collaboration with one of Belfast School of Art's most acclaimed graduates, Phil Collins.
For more information, to view the full programme, or to book tickets, visit belfastinternationalartsfestival.com.
