Director’s Welcome 2026

It is a tremendous honour to welcome you to our 64th Festival, and to present my first programme as Artistic Director. Since its inception in 1962, this Festival has brought extraordinary artists, ideas and audiences together, becoming an enduring part of Belfast’s cultural life through times of profound change. To now play a part in shaping its next chapter is a privilege, and I am delighted to invite you to join us for another celebration of art in all its boundless and beautiful forms.

Across four weeks, we welcome artists from 19 countries, alongside an exceptional range of work created here in Northern Ireland, presenting work in our theatres, galleries, concert halls, public spaces and some remarkable new venues. Alongside this, our International Showcase will welcome cultural leaders from more than 30 cities, giving them the opportunity to forge new international connections with our artists and companies.

Theatre and dance have always been central to Festival. We are delighted to celebrate the 75th anniversary of our friends at the Lyric Theatre through productions including Brian Friel’s Faith Healer, Hello Charlie and the gloriously unpredictable Darren Jackson’s Wedding. At The MAC, Tinderbox reimagines Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie, while Belgium’s internationally renowned Ontroerend Goed present Thanks for Being Here, an ingenious celebration of theatre’s most essential element: its audience.

The Our Voice Together Now project reaches a crescendo with The Light Within and Tá Brón Orm, bringing together artists from Belfast, Cairo and Palestine through an inspiring international dance exchange. We close the Festival with Nōs, a landmark new production from Luail – Ireland’s National Dance Company – featuring work by Akram Khan, Oona Doherty and Liz Roche.

Music has always been central to Belfast’s identity, and as a UNESCO City of Music we are delighted to present an ambitious and wideranging music programme. Senegal’s legendary Orchestra Baobab opens the Festival, while Radiohead guitarist Ed O’Brien brings his new Blue Morpho project to the Ulster Hall. Across the programme, artists including Joshua Idehen, corto.alto, Fergus McCreadie, Henning Kraggerud and many others demonstrate the extraordinary breadth of music being created today.

Our 2026 Artist-in-Residence, Rory Friers, is a remarkable musician whose work crosses boundaries between sound, performance and visual art. Alongside his HOME installation at Studio Ulster, Rory will create an ambitious one-nightonly performance at The MAC, alongside a variety of special guests.

This year sees the launch of our new Immersive Arts strand. At its heart is a takeover of Studio Ulster, the world’s most advanced virtual production facility. Audiences will experience three ambitious immersive works in one of the world’s most exciting creative spaces. Highlights include TAKKUUK, an extraordinary collaboration with Indigenous artists from Greenland featuring breathtaking infrared cinematography and a hypnotic score by BICEP; Rory Friers’ HOME, a powerful audiovisual installation; and Lost Communications: Underwater, An-Ting and Ian Gallagher’s psychedelic descent into an underwater world. At QUB’s Media Lab, Helena Hamilton presents Becoming, a deeply personal immersive exploration of the transformation of motherhood. Together, these works demonstrate the exciting creative possibilities emerging at the intersection of art and technology.

Our visual arts programme stretches across Belfast with exhibitions including the Royal Ulster Academy, Craft NI, Golden Thread Gallery, the Naughton Gallery and Queen Street Studios. Our outdoor programme will transform CS Lewis Square in partnership with Beat Carnival and Autin Dance Theatre. Creating space for conversation and new perspectives, our Talks & Ideas strand welcomes writers, artists and broadcasters including Sebastian Barry, Simon Mayo, Jan Carson, Bette Adriaanse and Brian Eno.

As we prepared this year’s Festival, we were deeply saddened by the passing of Glen Hansard, who had been due to return to us in November. Glen was an extraordinary artist and a much-valued friend of the Festival. We were honoured to have welcomed him to Belfast in previous years, and his absence will be deeply felt. Our thoughts remain with his family, friends and all who loved him.

No festival of this scale is created alone. My sincere thanks go to our artists, staff, Board, funders, venues, programme partners, volunteers and the many organisations and communities who have helped bring this programme to life.

Most of all, thank you for joining us. I hope this programme encourages you to discover new artists, take a chance on something unexpected and celebrate the remarkable creativity that continues to make this city such a vibrant place in which to live and create.

I look forward to welcoming you this autumn.

Chris McCreery | Artistic Director & CEO