Belfast International Arts Festival: Ed O'Brien, corto.alto, Orchestra Baobab & more to perform as acclaimed festival returns

The Belfast International Arts Festival returns this year, bringing theatre, music, dance, visual art and spoken word to venues across the city. Now one of the longest running arts festivals on the island of Ireland, it draws performers and artists from home and abroad for a programme that spans several weeks.

This year's line up covers a broad range of work, with something for audiences looking for major touring productions as well as smaller, more experimental shows.

Senegal’s legendary dance band, Orchestra Baobab, return to the festival for the first time since 2002. They will bring their entrancing ryhtyms to Mandela Hall on October 14.  Formed as the house band at Dakar’s Baobab Club in 1970, they became one of West Africa’s defining musical groups, celebrated for their irresistible fusion of Cuban and African grooves.

Their landmark 1982 album Pirates Choice is widely regarded as one of the greatest African recordings ever made. Its acclaimed reissue in 2001 introduced the band to a global audience and paved the way for their celebrated reunion.

Orchestra Baobab

On October 18, The Harrison Chambers of Distinction will host award-winning Belfast author Jan Carson, who will discuss No Vacancy, a collection of short micro-fiction inspired by her many hotel stays in recent years. Featuring readings from the book, Carson shares the stories behind this surreal and playful collection. Whether it’s winning ownership of the Isle of Man in a game of pool or decoding the messages of a one-eyed man in Norwich.

Interwoven with the conversation, acclaimed singer-songwriter Ciaran Lavery performs a series of live songs, bringing together two of Northern Ireland’s most distinctive artistic voices in intimate surroundings.

Jan Carson

Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien reveals An Evening With… Blue Morpho, a special performance at the Ulster Hall on Monday, October 19.

Blue Morpho finds O’Brien beginning anew. With its moments of hypnotic psych-folk, radiant guitars, beguiling trip-hop and luminous stillness, it reveals an artist moving beyond familiar structures.

The Blue Morpho live experience brings together a collective of musicians who performed on the album’s recording sessions, including musical director Dave Okumu. Rather than simply recreating the record in its studio form, the live show is conceived as a fluid and immersive experience – a celebration of the music in which each performance will evolve and take on a life of its own.

An extraordinary immersive journey into the Arctic with infrared cinematography and a hypnotic BICEP score, itdraws audiences into the powerful stories of Indigenous artists navigating a rapidly changing world. The title means ‘look closely’ in Inuktitut, and the project was co-created by BICEP, visual artist Zak Norman, filmmaker Charlie Miller, and seven Indigenous collaborators across Greenland and Sápmi, as part of the EarthSonic initiative.

Specially built infrared cameras transform familiar Arctic landscapes into something strange and otherworldly, while the featured artists open up about what it means to hold onto language, land and identity when so much conspires against continuity. It screens at Studio ulster from October 28-31.

TAKKUUK

Also taking place at the state-of-the-art Studio Ulster (on October 29 & 30) is Lost Communications: Underwater, a psychedelic audiovisual descent into a world that is simultaneously alien and home.

Electronic musician An-Ting weaves the conversations of coral, seals, and whales into a tapestry of spatial audio and Chinese verse, creating an epic landscape of deep emotion. As the sound swells, Ian Gallagher’s real-time 3D pointcloud environments respond in a kaleidoscope of mind-bending patterns.

Lost Communications: Underwater

Poet and performer Joshua Idehen brings his acclaimed new album I Know You’re Hurting, Everyone Is Hurting, Everyone Is Trying, You Have Got To Try to The Limelight on November 1.

Following the breakout success of Mum Does The Washing and appearances at Glastonbury, Green Man and on Later… with Jools Holland, I know your Hurting is an urgent but transcendent collection filled with grief, euphoria and hope.

Joshua Idehen

Regarded as one of the foremost novelists of our time, Sebastian Barry joins Alex Clark to discuss his powerful new book, The Newer World, at The MAC on November 1.

The novel follows the life of Tennyson Bouguereau – freed man, devoted brother, nascent singer, conflicted soldier and wanted man – as he journeys to find meaning and belonging in the aftermath of the American Civil War.

Sebastian Barry.

Also taking place at the MAC on November 1, is a special event featuring legendary artist, musician and activist Brian Eno and writer and artist Bette A. In a discussion hosted by Alex Clark, they will examine how art is made by all of us; how it creates communities, expands our worlds and has the power to transform how we see the future.

Bette A. and Brian Eno.

Mercury Prize-nominated Scottish jazz artist corto.alto makes his Belfast debut with a blistering live show, bringing music from his highly anticipated new album SOME SMALL FORTUNE when he takes over the Mandela Hall on November 5.

Fresh from winning the AIM Breakthrough Artist Award, corto.alto is the project of Glasgow-based multi-instrumentalist producer, composer and performer Liam Shortall. His acclaimed debut album Bad With Names was nominated for the 2024 Mercury Prize, blending adventurous jazz, electronic music and club culture into a sound that has helped introduce the genre to a new generation of listeners.

• Tickets for Belfast International Arts Festival events are on sale now, with prices and concessions varying by show. Some events may sell out quickly, so early booking is advised. For the full programme and ticket information, visit belfastinternationalartsfestival.com.

corto.alto