BIAF raises the curtain for 63rd edition

Belfast is set to become a global stage as the city’s annual arts festival raises the curtain on its 63^rd edition with plans to fill the city’s theatres, galleries and public spaces with voices and stories from around the world.

Belfast International Arts Festival (BIAF) returns to venues throughout Belfast from 14 October – 9 November with a new season of contemporary arts and culture featuring the very best international and homegrown artists from the worlds of theatre, dance, music, visual arts, literature, and film.

Festival  artistic director and chief executive Richard Wakely says: “This year’s programme is a real celebration of global creativity. We have gathered a richly diverse ensemble of artists and voices for what promises to be a truly memorable showcase and I’m proud that the city of Belfast will serve as the stage.

“This is my final festival programme as Artistic Director and Chief Executive. Serving artists and communities from home and abroad over the last 12 years has been one of the greatest privileges of my career. Belfast International Arts Festival is a window to the world of arts and culture and an immensely valuable developmental platform for both established and emerging artists. I look forward with anticipation to what the future holds for the festival and this great city.”

Our Voice Together Now is a unique dance exchange between Belfast, Cairo, and Ramallah, funded by an International Collaboration Award from the British Council, that will see three new works created and presented to audiences in 2025 and 2026. Palestinian choreographer Salma Ataya’s Everynothing will be the first of the pieces presented to Belfast audiences. Everynothing features three Irish dancers and debuts at The Crescent from 31 October – 1 November, in a special double bill with The Fallen, a solo work from the festival’s 2025 Artist in Residence, Michael McEvoy.

Future Parade is a new Shared Island creative youth project supported by four leading arts organisations: Macnas, BIAF, EastSide Arts, and Féile an Phobail and funded by Creative Ireland. Designed to bring together young people from diverse backgrounds, the initiative uses the spectacle of parade to explore shared stories, cultural identity, and community connection. Since mid-March, a group of teenagers from across Belfast and Galway have been looking at how a new generation might positively animate our streets in an exchange that will culminate in a finale performance as part of Féile an Phobail’s Halloween Parade on 30 October.

The festival’s International Showcase, a three-day event spotlighting the best theatre and performing arts from across Northern Ireland returns for its second year with the primary support of Culture Ireland and Belfast City Council. Delivered in partnership with British Council NI and Theatre and Dance NI, the showcase features performances from:

• BIAF’s own production of Everynothing (see above) at The Crescent from 31 October – 1 November, in a special double bill with The Fallen from Michael McEvoy.
• Big Telly Theatre Company, whose new horror-fuelled fever dream Faust-ish, a fiendishly clever twist on a time-honoured tale, is showing at the Lyric Theatre from 29 October – 9 November
• Cahoots with The Musicians of Bremen Live! and Unlocking Sherlock at Cityside Retail Park from 30 October – 2 November
• Dylan Quinn Dance Theatre with the uniquely intimate and local story of My Grandfather’s House performing at a secret location from 28 October – 2 November
• Lyric Theatre with Denouement; a funny, moving, and darkly comic take on what remains when everything else is stripped away, with previews from 21 October
• Off The Rails Dance, whose work-in-progress performance BPM: Barneys, Parties and Melters, a sweat-soaked, beat-fuelled dance-theatre experience, will be performed at the Brian Friel Theatre on 1 November
• Tinderbox Theatre Company, whose wildly imaginative new show, The Upside-Down House, a time-bending story about love, memory, and learning to let go, will be performed at The MAC from 22 October – 2 November

At CS Lewis Square on 18 October, Head Over Wheels, a disabled & non-disabled aerial company, will debut Anchored in Air, the ground-breaking aerial theatre show that pushes the boundaries of circus, with flying wheelchairs, integrated audio-description, live music, and gravity-defying acrobatics.

From 24-25 October, Soho Theatre will present My English Persian Kitchen at the Lyric Theatre. Written by award-winning Hannah Khalil from the story by Atoosa Sepehr, and starring Isabella Nefar, this life-affirming new play chronicles one woman’s quest to start again in a theatrical showcase for all the senses, live cooking to recreate the dishes of her childhood and homeland.

Also at the Lyric Theatre is Instructions by Subject Object, a bold new theatrical experiment by Nathan Ellis that blurs the lines between human spontaneity and algorithmic control. On 21 and 22 October, an unrehearsed actor will step onstage with no prior knowledge of the script. As they follow real-time instructions, a story will unfold and a life unspool.

Belfast audiences are also in for some extraordinary nights of music as the festival welcomes world-renowned artists Lisa O’Neill, Martin Hayes, and Chris Smither to the city for separate concerts.

Martin Hayes, one of the most revered fiddlers of our time, returns to the festival for a special performance at the Grand Opera House on 22 October, while folk raconteur Lisa O’Neill performs at The MAC on 29 and 30 October, and true American original Chris Smither on 17 October at The Black Box.

The festival will also premiere a new Ulster Orchestra co-commission from Michael Gallen at the Ulster Hall on 24 October. Bád on Alltár, which translates as ‘Boat From Beyond’ is a fusion of Irish traditional and classical music, drawing on the Celtic idea of the ‘thin veil’ between reality and the otherworld, bringing something new and previously unimagined to change our lives.

The festival’s Talks & Ideas strand welcomes Wexford born, Booker Prize-winner John Banville to The MAC on 8 November as he discusses his beguiling new novel, Venetian Vespers with critic and writer Alex Clark. Geoff Dyer will discuss his acclaimed new memoir, Homework, alongside Joe Dunthorne and critic John Self at The Crescent on 14 October.

Renowned artist Colin Davidson and broadcaster Mark Carruthers join Marie-Louise Kerr at the Ulster University on 5 November to discuss Twelve Paintings, their new book structured around a series of conversations inspired by twelve of Davidson’s key works.  Elaine Feeney, the bestselling author of the Booker-longlisted How to Build a Boat, explores her powerful new book, Let Me Go Mad In My Own Way at The MAC on 8 November. No Alibis Bookshop welcomes award winning poet and memoirist, Seán Hewitt on Friday 7 November for a conversation with John Self about his powerful new coming-of-age novel, with his first foray into fiction with, Open, Heaven.

Liam Hannaway, Chair, Arts Council of Northern Ireland, commented: “As the principal funder of the Belfast International Arts Festival, the Arts Council of Northern Ireland is delighted to welcome another wonderful festival which continues to bring world-class arts to audiences here, a true showcase and meeting place for inspiring new ideas, new experiences and new creativity.  Belfast International Arts Festival also ensures that there are fantastic opportunities for people from all backgrounds to engage with some of the most exciting local and international arts, making this a very special and welcoming festival for everyone.  Belfast International Arts Festival promotes our rich and distinctive cultures in positive and inclusive ways, and I would encourage everyone to join this great annual celebration of the arts.”

Lord Mayor of Belfast, Councillor Tracy Kelly said: “Artistic Director and Chief Executive Richard Wakely is certainly going out on a high with this wonderfully diverse and engaging festival programme. The council is proud to support the Belfast International Arts Festival, as it brings such creativity and richness of cultural experience to the city, expertly balancing contributions from both homegrown and international artists. Culture brings so much joy and meaning to our lives, animates the city and attracts people to visit and this festival is a real gem for Belfast. I wish Richard, his team and all those performing and supporting the very best for this year’s edition.”

Colette Norwood, Head of Arts, British Council Northern Ireland, said: “The British Council is delighted to support this year’s Belfast International Arts Festival and the launch of Our Voice Together Now –an ambitious new international dance collaboration connecting Belfast with Cairo and Ramallah.

“As one of the festival’s longest-standing international partners, we are proud to support projects that celebrate artistic exchange, cultural connection and creative innovation. Audiences this October can look forward to powerful new work developed through residencies, co-commissions and cross-cultural collaboration, bringing together artists from Northern Ireland, Egypt and Palestine.

“We’re proud to continue our close partnership with Belfast International Arts Festival – supporting Northern Ireland’s artists and strengthening global connections through the arts.”