• Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival Programme Launched

    April 2, 2015 - By 

    Having mightily weathered the storm of threatening arts cuts, Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival have launched the full programme for their 16th outing, set to take place from April 30 to May 10. With an already stellar cast of musicians, artists, comedians, actors, poets and every other ilk of performer and event already confirmed, the final programme also boasts the inclusion of The Stranglers, comedian David O’Doherty, several tantalizing theatre productions, Liverpudlian psych-folk band Stealing Sheep, fast-rising festival artist-in-residence Ciaran Lavery and much more. Go here to check out the full festival schedule and how to purchase tickets. Shot in the Cathedral Quarter…

  • Festival Preview: Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival 2015

    February 27, 2015 - By 

    The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival is now in its 13th year and it’s heartening to see that it is still going strong. After last year’s devastating cuts to the arts industry the city has sadly kissed goodbye to many similar events. The festival will launch its full programme in April but for now they have released some tantalizing details to keep the culture vultures circling. Joining the likes of Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes and Dublin electro wizards Le Galaxie – amongst several acts announced this morning – Irish stage actor Phelim Drew is bringing his celebrated adaptation of Down and Out in…

  • A Guide to the Cathedral Quarter – Part III

    August 1, 2014 - By 

    Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter has become a hub for culture in Northern Ireland in recent years. Once considered a dark and dodgy area of town, the Cathedral Quarter has been completely rejuvenated in recent years alongside the inauguration of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival fifteen years ago. One of the best things about the Cathedral Quarter is that there are so many venues in such a small area of land – perfect for boosting tourism and the local economy. Taking a quick dander around the quarter you’re sure to pass several stunning landmarks whether it be theatres, bars and pubs, or…

  • De La Soul w/ Joe Lindsay @ CQAF

    May 13, 2014 - By 

    Tonight, as the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival sadly draws to its inevitable close, Belfast is fortunate enough to have hip hop royalty De La Soul performing at Custom House Square, ensuring that the festival should go out with a bang. An oldskool hip hop sort of bang, rather. Upon arriving at tonight’ s venue, mingling throngs of hip hop fans old and young line up in eager anticipation of what’s starting to look like a belter of an evening. Through the entrance to the square, there are a few of the usual vendors selling their cold, delicious, life giving, good-time-having beery…

  • Q+A: Ted Chippington and the Nightingales

    May 7, 2014 - By 

    Formed in Birmingham in 1979, post-punk mavericks the Nightingales split up in 1986 after seven years, three albums, eight John Peel sessions and tours with everyone from Bo Diddley to Nico. They returned to the stage in 2004, and are playing their first ever Irish dates this month, including a slot at the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival. The band hit McHugh’s in Belfast on Thursday, May 8, with ‘anti-comedian’ Ted Chippington in tow, the man who Stewart Lee has often cited as the reason he started doing stand-up. Nightingales frontman Robert Lloyd and Chippington tell Andrew Johnston about life as outsiders. Words by Andrew Johnston…