Féile an Phobail: Thousands expected at west Belfast's 'window to the world'

BBC News

3 days ago

Féile an Phobail, billed as Ireland's biggest community arts festival, returns this weekend with thousands expected to attend events over the next two weeks.Now in its 37th year, the festival pitches itself as a celebration of Irish culture, with a spectacle of music, art and comedy events as well as political discussions.This year's festival will have added significance for one of its founders who will be conducting his long-running walking tours of Belfast City Cemetery for the final time.Tom Hartley, a former Sinn Féin lord mayor of Belfast, said the graveyard is "a reservoir" of the city's history and the perfect place to reflect on the years gone by.
"It's about the complexity of those who are buried here," Mr Hartley said."It's about the great and the good. Those who shaped Belfast in the 19th century, who made it the Silicon Valley of its day."It's about women, it's about the poor, it's about the working class, it's about my notions of death and how death plays a part in the humanity of human beings."
Mr Hartley told BBC News NI that while he plans to take a step back he hopes to continue his involvement in other ways. He believes the festival has allowed west Belfast to "connect with the world in a time when it appears to be upside down"."I feel it has all the potential to tap into the Irish diaspora worldwide," Mr Hartley told BBC News NI."Féile was founded at a time when the demonisation of west Belfast was at its height and so it was an expression of the internal light in our community, the creative, artistic element aspects."We wanted to show the generosity of this community and its openness, and I think Féile continues to do that in a big way."
The festival will also be "keepin' 'er country" with the return of a country music night after its sell-out debut in 2024.Féile Country Fest takes place on 2 August.Nathan Carter returns to the line-up alongside Claudia Buckley and The Whistlin' Donkeys. Speaking to BBC News NI, the country star said he was relishing another fantastic night at Falls Park."We're really excited for this year's Féile, we played their last year and it was one of the biggest gigs of the entire year and festival season," Carter said."In Belfast we've a good old crowd that follows us so it was great to see the tremendous success at last year's country night."The Liverpool native who now lives in County Fermanagh said being able to perform in front of thousands at the west Belfast venue was "a dream come true" and praised efforts to make the concert affordable for families.
Controversy
The festival has not been without controversy.This week, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, one of its principal funders, asked organisers to remove its logo from the festival's sports events after a children's sports event was named after a former IRA chief of staff.In the past, there have been complaints about pro-IRA chanting at a gig by the band The Wolfe Tones.