Pigstock is a festival that is really up and coming on the Northern Ireland Calendar, and with its…read morewonderful name why shouldn't it! The festival has been running for the last 3 years, and each year has seen a step up in both the professionalism and popularity of the event. At what other festival around does part of the admission fee help fund the open fire pig roast for everyone to feast on to line their stomach before the inevitable drink and moshing bonanza that will end up having your stomach acting like it is blender? The music showcases the best of local Northern Irish bands, both established and up and coming, with last year including local stalwarts A Plastic Rose and the great newbies Key Of Atlas! You can either camp or go just for the music, but for only a fiver more and a whole nights more rowdy banter, the only choice has to be the camping! My good friend Jamie's uncle helps run this and there is so much passion here for local music, I can;t recommend it enough.Be warned though, if you are looking for a good night's sleep head elsewhere: this one gets rowdy! So my advice next May is to get yourself down to Pigstock and you will be as happy as a Pig in...... well, you know the rest!

Belfast Mela (Mela; Indian - to meet/ gathering) is the annual festival of international culture…read morewhich celebrates traditional arts, dance, music and fun from over thirty countries. Each year the Mela is given different themes which has previously been; Bollywood, Health & Well-Being, Caring for our Environment and Asian Fashion. This year we are being treated to a traditional Indian circus! The event aims to promote the understanding of different cultures and runs workshop and information days relating to this. This year it's being held on Sunday 29th August, 12-6pm on the Great Lawn at Botanic Gardens, Belfast. The festival is organised by ArtEkta (Northern Ireland's leading ethnic arts organisation) and is run entirely by local volunteers. It's hugely popular, having attracted over 50,000 visitors in the past three years. It's a great cause so any support is much welcome. If you wish to find out more information about the festival, email info@belfastmela.org.uk or call 028 9023 1381

This place has a lot of functions to do with different community projects. However, it's best known…read morefor being the ticket office for all events at the West Belfast Festival, a.k.a. Féile an Phobail, a.k.a. the "Fla". Every year, for about a week and a half, there's a festival organised which starts at the end of July. It's reputedly the biggest community festival in Europe, and attracts tourists from far and wide. It has a whole host of events - live music gigs; lectures; comedy nights; photographic/art exhibitions; debates... the list goes on, and the events are held in a huge variety of venues from schools and community centres to pubs and marquees. It's amazing how many visitors this attracts every year.

A real collectic mix of music, food, spoken word, comedy a discussion. Parking is £5. #SFF17read more

Sunflower Fest was a brand new event on the Northern Ireland festival calendar , providing…read morefantastic weekend of live music, arts and great food in a hospitable atmosphere, which is more than can be said for a lot of festivals! It must also be said that the festival also had a wonderful cause, with all profits going to rebuilding Haiti after the devastating earthquake. Held over three-days, the focus was on showcasing some of Northern Ireland's finest bands and artists. The festival had two stages - one outdoors and the other indoor. There was a real variety of acts of all types and genres, with personal local favourites of mine Sweet Savage, Rams Pocket RADIO and Mental Deficiency showing their funky faces! The festival continued its ethical edge by encouraging as many people as possible to cycle to the festival, thought a lot of people like me had too far to travel and not enough time to journey down there, but maybe next year! Tickets were £28 for the entire weekend which was fantastic value, with individual day tickets all within a few pounds radius of £10. This was a really well run festival that had real heart, so I look forward to seeing how they build on things next year!

Without a doubt Culture Night Belfast is the best night of the year. Despite recent arts cuts…read moreCulture Night was back in September 2015 even bigger and better than before. It's an annual occurrence consisting of a full day of activities. Over 250 free arts events starting at 1pm and running until late. Belfast comes to life on this one day like no other. There's a leisurely, relaxed, bustling vibe throughout the city with most activities happening in the Cathedral Quarter area. Visual art, music, dancing, sword fencing, magicians, street artists, performance art, circus acts, art exhibitions, fire dancers, roller derbies, jugglers, food and drink. There's a bedazzling array of entertainment and it's for all age groups from babies to centenarians. The streets are closed off to traffic and you can grab a drink, a Culture Night brochure and just wander about exploring what's on. It's a magical night. Forget Christmas, Halloween or any other festivity or festival. Nothing compares to Belfast Culture Night - it's the best - I hope it never stops. Here are some of my favourites from CNB15: INKIE art exhibition ~ Ink Monkey art shop Claire Carpenter art exhibition ~ Cafe 31 Faigy art exhibition ~ Assembly Rooms Yarn bombing by Saturday Knit Fever Fire dancing by FirePoise Lumen by Guerilla Shout & DSNT Hit The North Street Art Festival Urban dance by Cypher Sessions Belfast Roller Derby Irish dance ~ Tir na n-Og Dance Group DeLorean Print Cars ~ Belfast Photo Festival

Culture Night Belfast took place for the first time last year, and it got even bigger this year. It…read morebasically involves every arts organisation flinging its doors open to the public for free and as a result, there's a real buzz about the place. It initially started as a Cathedral Quarter event, but was extended a little to include some of South Belfast this year. My understanding is that they want to eventually have Culture Night take place all over the city, which would be some achievement! The events are massively varied - Belfast Film Festival might put on what they call "Bean Bag Cinema", which is where a film is screened in one of the Cathedral Quarter's alleyways, with the audience sitting on Bean Bags. The galleries in the area might put on special shows, artists take to the streets to create something on the night and almost every cafe or restaurant has some sort of live music going on. It's such a great way to remove some of the barriers that stop people getting involved in the arts. Since it's all so relaxed, it's really easy to just go down, have a wander round and see what grabs your attention!

This festival is a real gem, and is a welcome addition to the cultural activities of Belfast!It is…read morelocated this year in Botanic Gardens which makes it a central and easily accessible place for all those of Belfast and beyond! To start off, the food is provided by the finest chefs from the restaurants of Northern Ireland. I was there yesterday and I was lucky to sample food from the chefs of La Boca, Mourne Seafood Bar and the Fitzwilliam Hotel. There is a wide range of food to cater to all tastes, including vegetarians. As for the music, it is mainly of the cover band variety, but when the bands are tight and very engaging like Flash Harry and Rumours Of Fleetwood Mac, the lack of originality can be overlooked! There a wide range of pricing plans, ranging from £5 for five sampling tokens and admission in the lunch time hours to the "Premiere Club Taste Fest" package for £50 which gets you entry to every day, 25 food tokens and a free drink of your choice.It is up to you what you need most! I wish this Festival the best of luck and hope it grows stronger in the years to come!

Ok, so positives first:…read more The food! Yummy! There's so much variety and you get to sample food from the best of NI's chefs and restaurants - Belfast's Merchant, Portadown's Yellow Door - they're all there and the food is (generally) divine. The entertainment is also pretty good. Last year when I went it was the Strictly Come Dancing band and two of the dancers (this was great for me - I'm a massive Strictly fan!) and this year, I saw Flash Harry, who are a really very good Queen tribute band. And now the negatives - it's so expensive! You can burn £30 or £40 without thinking, which stings a bit! Actually, that's about the only negative I can think of. I was going to mention the weather, since it was a total wash out, but it seems unfair to use that against them. It's an incredibly well organised event that's well worth going to, even if it will set you back.

Belfast Fringe Festival is being arranged this year for the first time ever! After a round up of…read morepublic support and petitions the Belfast Festival is now including its very own Fringe element. This is in support of local artists/performers/ singers, comedians/ poets, circus performers, anything and everything at all! The aim is to provide a non-censored, accessible, and available to all festival for the people of Belfast and beyond. Hopefully this year we will gather support for the Fringe cause and then be able to set up a permanent society which represents all of the arts. Come show your support for this fantastic cause from 14th-17th October 2010. In their own poetic words; Sample from a buffet of sumptuous offerings, delivered by a collection of Northern Irish artistes given full rein to dish up a portion of their finest creations. You will be dazzled by the unfettered creativity which is unleashed.'

This aptly named 'Writer's Square' area of the magnificent St Anne's church courtyard was…read moretransformed for one night only in to a Mecca of arts and culture where various stalls, tents and stands were set up and all displayed their various wares, arts, skills and events all in relation to Culture Night. There were a number of interesting, fun stalls where you could get henna tattoos or get your face painted or pick up information about the various charities and events relating to Culture Night around Cathedral Quarter. There was live music playing throughout the night as well as a miniature stage show from 'Leon and the place Between' which will be debuted at the Belfast Festival at Queens. Any one who missed this night should be well prepared for next year as it seems to be growing and flourishing in to a fantastic event on the Belfast calendar. It was here I discovered the publication 'Belfast Flags of Hope' which is a fascinating and great publication by The Thomas Devlin Fund. This group was set up to commemorate the young school boy (Devlin) who was viciously murdered on his way home from the shop, one summer night, five years ago. The fund provides financial support for teens involved in creative and musical ventures. The 'Flags of Hope' idea was thought up by local artist Raymond Watson who wanted to represent the aspirations of school children in the fight for the hope of a day where sectarianism no longer exists. This scheme touched my heart as I was at school with Dev and I think it's great to see even a glimmer of good coming out of his death.

We went to Belsonic to see Lizzo and the site that it's on is amazing, plenty of places to buy food…read moreand drink. The stage was massive and could be seen from the whole standing area. Sound was perfect. I would definitely come again to watch an artist.

I only give 1 star purely for alcohol beverages. This place is sponsored by Limelite and does not…read moresell any Gin/Tonic or Soda Water ect. The only alcohol they sell is Tennents £7. Red & White Wine, a glass £8. Vodka and Coke ect & Magners. No price because I didn't purchase. Very disappointed.

There's always an air of excitement when Belfast Film Festival begins and this year has been no…read moredifferent. With the Northern Irish film Industry booming it seems like this year's festival will be a celebration of the talent that we have on these shores. The Belfast Film Festival organisers are excellent at promoting local venues and businesses. For instance last night I attended a special screening of Network aptly shown in a BBC studio at Balckstaff House. The venue was a perfect compliment to the movie and this is the beauty of The Belfast Film Festival - it provides a cinematic experience. The local promotion didn't stop there as Fratelli's hosted the pre movie drinks. It's fantastic to see a festival and local businesses work together to promote all Belfast has to offer. Venues include QFT, The Black Box and Moviehouse on the Dublin Road. This is the 15th year of The Belfast Film Festival and it's running from 16th April - 25th April - so if you want to see some local talent in the big screen or just want to see some local venues in a different light then look no further.

Belfast Film Festival takes place every year in April for two weeks…read more The programme is usually very varied, so it's hard to describe it exactly. Basically though, you can expect every kind of film; comedy, sci-fi, art house, horror, classic and there's usually a strong local or Irish feel about it too. The movies are screened in venues all over the city, some conventional cinemas and some more unconventional venues (like on a boat going on the Lagan for instance!) For proper film buffs, there are talks and workshops as well. There's generally something for everyone and it's a great chance to see some interesting films in unusual settings. There are also special events that take place during the rest of the year, so it's always worth keeping an eye on the website to see if there's anything on.