The Fleadh kicks off in Belfast…
Posted by Jim on August 4, 2026
 By Brian O’Neill on 4 August 2026I spent an enjoyable Sunday in Belfast city centre on the first day of the Fleadh. It was extraordinary to see such a massive crowd of people in the city centre. The area around City Hall, Donegal Place, Royal Avenue, etc., had been pedestrianised and it really was an example of what’s possible in our city centres if we remove vehicles. Now I say this as a car driver myself, but we all know from holidays to Europe that car-free towns and cities are just more pleasurable to be in.So far, the organisers seem to have done a wonderful job. The stage and big screen in City Hall were great. We brought some folding chairs and were happy sitting on the grass watching the acts. If I was to give one suggestion to the organisers it would be to put the running order on the big screen so people know what’s coming up next and at what time. The change over between acts was very slow, they should have used the change over downtime to showcase some amateur musicians who would love a shot at the play for such a big crowd or the safer option to run some pre-recorded video of performances.It was impressive to see all the various buildings that have become pop-up venues and bars, for example, the bars on Donegal Street. The big revelation was the electric light station, which is next to St Mary’s Church on Church Lane. I’ve walked past it for years and never thought about what was behind those doors but it turns out to be a massive Victorian warehouse that makes an amazing music venue. Who knew? Rumour has it Barney Eastwood used it to park his Rolls Royce in. I imagine it will become a permanent venue but it does need a bit of TLC as I would say it would be absolutely freezing in wintertime. the electric light stationIf you come in for the Fleadh, here are some tips for you.Transport: obviously it is best if you can take public transport but if you are driving there are lots of car park spaces around Belfast. You just need to think ahead and be clever. Thanks to deindustrialization and the troubles, Belfast has an insane amount of surface-level car parks, many of which are not very obvious as they’re basically waste ground that the owner has stuck a parking machine in.What you need to do is download the RingGo App and it will show you the locations of all the car parks. Best of all it will show you live how busy they are so you can see where has spaces. My recommendation is this one on Millfield, its only £1 an hour and its only a 2 minute walk to Maddens, Kellys Cellars etc. There is another one to the left of it, which is only 50p an hour. Although it does have vibes of “not sure if you’re gonna come back to your car on concrete blocks and your wheels missing”.Eating/drinking: Belfast is eye-wateringly expensive these days. I was charged £23 for two drinks. It was expensive even before the Fleadh. The average price of a pint now is £7. I think Belfast must easily be the most expensive city in the UK or Ireland now for eating out and drinking. even London is cheaper. What some places are doing is even putting a service charge on every drink. As you’re being handed a plastic cup, it really rubs it in to be charged an extra 15% for the pleasure of standing in the middle of the street.If you’re coming into Belfast with a family, the obvious thing to do is to bring a picnic. I especially recommend bringing some folding chairs. Remember there are lots of supermarkets in Belfast City Centre. You have the M&S Food Hall near City Hall, which has an enormous selection of food and snacks. You also have the Lidl on High Street and lots of Tesco Expresses so it is possible to keep the costs down. You also have the usual fast food places like McDonald’s etc.Given the crowds it’s more than possible just to stick a few cans or bottles in your backpack and top up on the fly. They are checking bags going into City Hall but it’s just a cursory glance so it would be more than easy to stick your wine or whatever in a water bottle. Oddly there is no bar or food in the grounds of City Hall. Be aware that there is a separate entrance and exits. There were reports of some people leaving to get a drink or an ice cream but couldn’t get back into the grounds due to the crowds.If you’re in the Cathedral Quarter, 44 Hill Street has opened up a lovely little courtyard area where you can get reasonably priced food and drinks. It’s also quite quiet so it will give you a break from the chaos. There is also a pop-up bar opposite the Oh Yeah centre on Gordon Street selling beer for four quid. A pop-up venue on Donegal Street.  Courtyard at 44 Hill StSome suggestions for next year’s event.Some venues are working better than others. For example as I mentioned above, the electric light station is an amazing success whereas I called into the Telegraph building yesterday afternoon and it was pretty grim: not many people, loud, dark, and smelling of piss. Now to be fair, come Friday night and Saturday the place could be rammed but the organisers need to think is it better to focus the crowd to certain areas, especially during the mid-week quieter times as at the moment it is very fragmented.There needs to be a dedicated family zone as at the moment everything is far too alcohol focused with zero for kids to do. The obvious place for a family zone is St Annes Square or the revamped park next to the art college which will be open for next year. St Annes Square is a wonderful location so I was very surprised to see it not really being used. I passed it a few times and there was nothing on. Very strange. You need a safe family zone with a small stage for kids to play music on, street performers, bouncy castles and other attractions, crafts, face paints, etc. Ironically I didn’t actually hear much traditional music being played, especially by random musicians. There were a few around trying their best but it was next to impossible to hear them given the loudness of the environment. I imagine that there are lots of musicians trundling around trying to find a session to play in. There needs to be more thought given to where musicians can actually play. Musicians are the golden goose of the Fleadh and they need to be relentlessly accommodated. If the organisers haven’t got them already, there needs to be some kind of musician concierge service that helps organise sessions and informs musicians of what’s happening and what’s going on, what venues are hot, etc. I would even go as far as having musician-only locations that are not known to the general public, as everyone loves a bit of exclusivity. I would even have a subsidised canteen where musicians can get a low cost fed and meet up with each other. I will give you an example of the problem. I personally am involved with a local school of music but in our WhatsApp group they are struggling to think of where 20 odd musicians could meet up to have a session during the Fleadh. There needs to be a better way to support and encourage impromptu sessions. That may sound like an oxymoron as the whole idea of an impromptu session is that it’s well impromptu but you can do things to help the process, fertilise the ground as it were.What currently seems to be happening is all the focus is on the paid musicians that venues are putting on, which is positive and it’s good to see professional musicians making a living but there doesn’t seem to be much opportunity to play for the amateur and independent musicians who are visiting.Musicians can be delicate little flowers and shoving them in a tent with a thousand people shouting and talking over them is not a great experience. I’m sure the organisers are already engaging with the experts from TradFest etc if not then they need to be fully engaging with musicians and taking their feedback and suggestions on board as a priority.Venues also need to stop with the piped background music. You can’t have an impromptu session with Christy Moore blaring in the background.There needs to be some quality control over some of the stalls. Some of the sheer crap that they’re selling in Royal Avenue is embarrassing. Selling things like BB guns etc. has no place in Belfast and the organisers should review what stalls are selling and not let them back for next year. My take away from the event so far is that the organisers have done a wonderful job. They are getting good crowds and people seem to be enjoying the festivities. My main criticism would be that there’s too much focus on alcohol and street drinking. Now I know absolutely every event in our society is alcohol-soaked so this is nothing new but the event needs more soul and emotion.My fear is that visitors to Belfast will be going home with the feeling that they had their wallets emptied and did not actually experience much in the way of culture. In fact I would go as far as to say that Belfast has more culture going on in normal times than I’ve actually seen during the Fleadh.It might sound like I’m being a bit negative. I am not. I just think it’s important to review what’s working and what’s not working so next year’s event can be even better. It was very encouraging to see a wide range of people from all parts of society enjoying the festivities, but the organisers must fully engage with all of the Belfast arts community to make sure that next year’s event is more than standing in the street drinking overpriced beer out of a plastic cup. When it comes to culture you always need to balance the heart with the head.Comment |