Belfast Music and Festival city

Belfast Music and Festival City

“If you can’t have a good time in Belfast, you can’t have a good time,” claimed musician and presenter Jools Holland.

Well, Justin Beiber was ‘loving Belfast’ when he swooped in with MTV. Northern Ireland music giants Snow Patrol relish rocking the city. And Rihanna? She was literally dancing on tables while shooting a video here.

This city has music in its DNA and festivals coming out its ears. For a snippet of what this sounds like, watch this video from Belfast Music Week. Just think of it as a year-round music festival, where you choose the line-up.

And if that doesn’t sound like a good time, then even Belfast can’t help you.

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Snow Patrol by Bradley Quinn

Musical Legacy

Belfast City is quite the muse, contributing to the music scene for decades, and in astounding proportion to its size. After all, these streets gave us Van Morrison, Gary Moore, Ruby Murray, and nurtured the stadium-fillers Snow Patrol. Crooner Brian Kennedy, fiddler Sean Maguire, and the McPeake Family (whose fans included John Lennon and Bob Dylan) were all nurtured by these neighbourhoods. Hear all the stories on the Belfast Music Tour, where rock ‘n’ roll lore meets epic tunes on a journey through the streets of this music city.

OhYeah listen here

Listen here

The sounds of Belfast are sweeter than any other city, and we’ve got the Belfast Music App to prove it. Of course, there’s a time for iPods, and a time for live music but both must be shared. Belfast and its classy coterie of venues, clubs and haunts will be buzzing to the same tune, so should you pop into, say, The Duke of York Pub, Limelight, Spring and Airbreak or the Ulster Hall, prepare to have your ears pleased by some rather righteous rhymes. Special mention goes to the Oh Yeah Music Centre, part venue, part recording-studio, and part music exhibition dripping with memorabilia. It is an ode to the artists that have gone before, and a nurturing push to the onrushing waves of new talent. Sounds good to us.

Music festivals

Festival Fever

Scan your eyes over the gig listings, and Belfast seems like a 365-day music party. In a way, it is, but it also hosts some mega-festivals destined for your diary. Whether it’s concerts or céilís, fiddle or folk, MTV or rockabilly, there’s a festival for you. Get a taste of Tennessee at the Belfast Nashville Songwriters' Festival , or what trad and Bluegrass sound like together at the Open House Festival. There’s a dedicated festival for Chamber Music, Children, Titanic and Belsonic. Basically, if you like music, you’re in for a good time in Belfast.

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