A bit like your Dad at a wedding disco, The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival likes to think of itself as pretty cutting edge, loose and ‘out there’. Certainly any festival that includes the author of the great ‘Fight Club’, Chuck Palahniuk, a rap version of the Canterbury Tales and a group of Throat singers from Siberia isn’t bog standard.

Sometimes however, when the pressure of constantly riding the zeitgeist becomes too much, we like to look back as well as forward. In the slightly parallel universe CQAF occupies, this year sees a number of significant anniversaries.

70 years ago this year a group of volunteers from Ireland, North & South set out for Spain to join the fight against Fascism (p.16 & 79). 50 years ago Allen Ginsberg published Howl and inspired a whole counter-cultural movement (p.12). 30 years ago saw the shock to the system that was Punk give rise to a new generation of innovators like Julian Cope and Terry Hall. At the same time, artists like Richard Hawley or Julie Feeney couldn’t be more contemporary or relevant.

This year the Festival reaches the less than memorable age of 7, slightly surprised to still be here but still alive with possibilities for the Cathedral Quarter. Laganside, who have helped us greatly since our inception, now exit the scene. The area clearly isn’t yet the cultural Mecca we hoped it would become but there are enough positive signs to make us believe that the project is worth still striving for.

In any case, we would hope to be around for a while longer providing, in the words of one acidic commentator, an ‘annual injection of botox for the flabby cultural buttocks of the city.’ Ouch! As we line up the syringe, we hope you’ll find something worth seeing or doing during the Festival. If not, please let us know.

Thanks.