This year's Sound of Belfast launches this evening at the Oh Yeah Centre in Belfast. The festival will include live concerts and talks, awards, conferences, industry panels and workshops, as well as youth, family, community and collaborative events aiming to promote the efforts of local musicians.

Across nine venues, including Limelight 2, The Empire, The Sunflower Bar, Voodoo, Black Box, Accidental Theatre, Ulster Hall, and 39 Gordon Street, over 70 acts will participate.

Notable events throughout the week include; Rude Health – a fundraiser for AWARENI. The event features performances from Catalan, Hot Cops, Malojian, Susie Blue to name just a few.

Charlotte Dryden, of Oh Yeah says, “There is a lot of great work being done in Belfast across the year by musicians, creators, venues, promoters, and dedicated music fans. Sound of Belfast is about celebrating that. The programme is packed full of great events, and this year we felt it was important to try and highlight and support the work that is being done for mental health and wellbeing, an issue that affects many musicians. There will be events to support the work of AWARENI and Help Musicians NI and it is with thanks to our dedicated and committed music community that we are able to do this. We are also honoured to be able to pay tribute to and add Jackie Flavelle to the Oh Yeah Legend series this year. Overall the Sound of Belfast festival is a celebration of all that is great about our music community. We strongly encourage people to come out and support these events, and beyond the festival and across the year.”

The NI Music Prize will take place at the Ulster Hall with performances from Hannah Peel, Ciaran Lavery, ROE, Ryan Vail, The Wood Burning Savages and Brand New Friend. Snow Patrol’s, Gary Lightbody, will be awarded with an ‘Outstanding Contribution to Music’ award.

For more details go to www.soundofbelfast.com