Belfast International Arts Festival celebrates 60th anniversary this autumn

Established in 1962, Belfast's longest-running international arts festival is returning this autumn with over 320 imaginative, inspiring and intriguing events spanning across the artistic disciplines of music, theatre, dance, film, visual arts and discussion.

Belfast International Arts Festival (BIAF) boasts an outstanding music programme that covers different genres and generations. Festival-goers can look forward to performances by the likes of hit-maker Paul Carrack, legendary Irish fiddle player Martin Hayes and his latest project the Common Ground Ensemble, unique folk artist Lisa O’Neill, Canadian blues guitarist Matt Andersen (sold out), and the popular free BBC Radio 3 concert series.

A special evening featuring musicians from the Middle East and African continent, A Night of Musical Journeys by the Musicians At Risk Resettlement Scheme, will combine a diverse mix of songs, poetry and spoken word from artists who have been welcomed to Irish shores for sanctuary.

Also performing at BIAF this year are IMLÉ, the Irish Language music collective fusing rock, dance, electronic and indie, the Ulster Orchestra, Derry-born pianist Ruth McGinley as part of Belfast Music Society’s Northern Lights Mini-Fest, Wallis Bird, and many more.

The festival's autumn season opens on Wednesday, 5th October with the UK premiere of Dinner With Groucho, a new play by award-winning Irish writer Frank McGuinness, who is known for iconic plays such as Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me and The Factory Girls. Produced by b*spoke theatre company, the performance promises "blistering wit, brilliant buffoonery, and reflections on the ephemeral nature of life," according to the press release.

Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools. Credit Jeremy Mimnagh.

Music will play an integral role in many of BIAF's theatre and dance performances, including the bittersweet story of trans artist Vivek Shraya’s journey through showbiz in How To Fail as a Popstar, double Ivor Novello-nominated Belfast composer Conor Mitchell's Propaganda: A New Musical, and leading NI dancemaker Oona Doherty's largest project to date, Navy Blue.

The danced portrait of Polish harpsicordist Elisabeth Chojnacka, Elisabeth Gets Her Way, by leading European dancemaker Jan Martens combines different styles of movement as effortlessly as she switched between registers and genres.

This year's festival places a special focus on the Middle East, North Africa and Canada. Canadian events include the European premiere of The Queen in Me by Nikkei-Canadian artist Teiya Kasahara 笠原貞野 (they/them), whose exuberant new opera involves comedy and drama and explores the ways in which race, gender, and sexuality are policed in the opera industry.

Popular arias (from La Bohème, Lucia di Lammermoor, Macbeth, Madama Butterfly, Manon Lescaut, Rigoletto, Salome, and The Magic Flute) are masterfully weaved in with Kasahara's personal experience and the questioning of stereotypes.

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, affectionately known as "The Trocks".

The Talks & Ideas strand invites international and local names to discuss thought-provoking issues, such as state violence, freedom of speech and movement, culture, society, impermanence, and the creative possibilities opened up by our digital world.

Closing the festival are Inuk artist Laakkuluk Williamson Bathory and queer theatre-maker Evalyn Parry performing their magnificent and powerful play Kiinalik: These Sharp Tools, which examines Canadian histories, culture, and climate.

Belfast International Arts Festival is supported by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Belfast City Council, The Government of Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs Reconciliation Fund, Tourism NI and the British Council Northern Ireland.

Ticket deals: There is a multi-buy offer on the ten selected events, available to the end of the festival. Find out more here.

Visit the festival homepage for the full programme and more information.

Watch the official trailer for BIAF 2022 below.