Future Parade

Future Parade is a new Shared Island creative youth project supported by four leading arts organisations: Macnas, BIAF, EastSide Arts, and Féile an Phobail. 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.

This exchange will culminate in a finale performance as part of Féile an Phobail’s Halloween Parade. Since mid-March, teenagers from across Belfast and Galway have been collaborating on the project, imagining how a new generation might creatively animate our streets. Participants are working closely with professional artists in sustainable design, performance, storytelling, and placemaking.

Through weekly workshops and residential weekends, they’re gaining practical skills in spectacle arts while building friendships across geographical and cultural divides. At its core, Future Parade is about self-expression, experimentation, and reimagining shared island experiences. The programme promotes creative dialogue and hands-on learning, encouraging participants to think critically, solve problems, and collaborate meaningfully.

By combining the expertise of established cultural organisations, Future Parade offers young people a platform to lead conversations about identity, community, and the future they want to shape together.

Funded by Creative Ireland under Creative Youth on a Shared Island.