Ireland's Biggest International Festival

ULSTER BANK BELFAST FESTIVAL AT QUEEN'S
17th October – 1st November, 2008

2008 saw the Belfast Festival at Queen's reach its 46th anniversary, and it was one to remember with visitors travelling from far and wide, including Russia, Japan and Isreal. Highlights included film legend Ennio Morricone (above), the Michael Clark Dance Company, Cherie Blair and a feast of drama from Corn Exchange, Prime Cut, Footsbarn and many more.

Every year, the largest festival of its kind in Ireland brings the best of international art to Belfast and brings international attention to the city’s dynamic arts practitioners. The Festival covers all art forms including theatre, dance, classical music, literature, jazz, comedy, visual arts, folk music and popular music, attracting over 100,000 visitors.

In the beginning there was an enterprising young undergraduate, Michael Emmerson, who started running a small event based on the campus of Queen's University, Belfast. The university, its students and the Belfast public saw that it was good and the infant Belfast Festival at Queen's was born. Ten years later and the Festival was ten times bigger and had already attracted such names as Dizzy Gillespie, Ravi Shankar, Laurence Olivier and Jimi Hendrix!

In the 1970s the Festival was a cultural oasis in a landscape dominated by political upheaval and it was to act as a catalyst for the city's future cultural renaissance. By the early ’80s under the directorship of Michael Barnes, a former History lecturer, the Festival had expanded into a two week long arts extravaganza across the whole of the city and was hosting everything from Moscow State Ballet and the Royal Shakespeare Company to Dexy's Midnight Runners and the Flying Pickets! Billy Connolly and Rowan Atkinson had visited the Festival before they were famous and were welcomed back, while Michael Palin vowed never to take his one-man show anywhere else on earth such was his love of the event. The dusty archive files lurking in the caverns of the Festival House basement read like a who’s who of prominent artists during the latter half of the 20th century.

One of the Festival's enduring key roles is as an advocate of local work, giving Belfast's arts practitioners a unique opportunity to present their work on an international platform. Eminent figures Seamus Heaney, Paul Muldoon, James Galway, Van Morrison, Stewart Parker and Marie Jones were welcomed early in their careers and recent productions by local theatre companies such as Tinderbox, Ransom, Prime Cut and Kabosh have thrived during the Festival.

More recently, the Festival has welcomed Robert Wilson, Alfred Brendel, Merce Cunningham, Philip Glass, Nick Cave, Kylie Minogue and Yoko Ono as its guests.

Director Graeme Farrow says:

“The Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen's has an excellent reputation for presenting the best of Irish, UK and international culture each October. Northern Ireland has embraced the role of culture in its everyday life and it recognises the crucial role the arts can play in economic, social and cultural life.”

In 2008, Ulster Bank Group announced a new sponsorship deal with the biggest arts event in Northern Ireland, the Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s. With an investment of over £1 million over three years, the support of the festival marks a growing commitment by Ulster Bank Group to be at the heart of the performing arts sector.

The three-year deal with the festival secures the bank’s position as the leading organisation supporting the performing arts across the island of Ireland. Last year, Ulster Bank Group announced a €1 million partnership deal as title sponsor for the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival and also supports a number of regional events throughout the year.

Speaking at the announcement of the sponsorship, Cormac McCarthy, Ulster Bank Group Chief Executive said: 

“We are delighted to announce our sponsorship of the Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s and to be involved in such a prestigious event. The arts have a significant role to play in a modern economy and this festival is one of the most high profile events in the country, one which has stood out as a beacon of everything positive Northern Ireland has to offer.

“We have adopted a long-term strategy in our overall sponsorship programme and believe that our on-going support of the performing arts to such a significant extent will not only increase visibility of Ulster Bank, but will also help to bring the festival to an even wider audience, including our customers.”

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