Congregation by Ray Lee

Let a magical sphere take you on an outdoor sonic adventure to a secret location, guiding you by sound alone. Seemingly possessed of its own mind it guides you through familiar and unfamiliar terrain. Can you keep the sphere ‘happy’ by going in the right direction? In return the orb will lead you on a listening voyage to the mysterious final destination where you will encounter a meeting of the spheres, a chiming, pulsing web of electronic sound.

In Congregation the audience are invited in small groups to discrete locations in a city where they are given a silver sphere. They are instructed that the sphere will guide them to a location by emitting sounds, one sound for the correct direction and another for the wrong direction.

Dumbworld commissions Congregation for it’s Irish premiere as part of their Ambulatory Arts programme- a series of immersive artistic interventions experienced on foot across the city.

Generously hosted by The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival

Commissioned by Norwich and Norfolk Festival and Out There Festival Great Yarmouth with financial support from Without Walls, OCM, Oxford Brookes University and 101 Outdoor Arts, Newbury.

Booking essential here: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/congregation-by-ray-lee-tickets-579011548127

Price £5

Dates : Sat 6th May 11am & 3pm/ Sunday 7th May 1pm & 4pm

Congregation headlines Dumbworld’s Ambulatory Arts programme- a series of immersive artistic interventions experienced on foot across the city.

Commissioned by Norwich and Norfolk Festival and Out There Festival Great Yarmouth with financial support from Without Walls, OCM, Oxford Brookes University and 101 Outdoor Arts, Newbury.

Hero of Belfast: Mary Ann McCracken Walking Tour

Dates and Times
Friday, 5 May 2023, 14.00-16.30
Saturday, 6 May, 10.00-12.30

Meeting Point
Clifton House
2 North Queen Street
Belfast
BT15 1ES

Please arrive 10-15 minutes before the start of the tour.

Parking
Onsite parking is available

Description
Experience Mary Ann McCracken’s Belfast, as you walk in the footsteps of this remarkable abolitionist, philanthropist and social reformer. Mary Ann McCracken, who was born over 250 years ago, is intrinsically linked to the city of Belfast. She lived her fearless life championing causes, moving from place to place, always on a mission to make life better for those less fortunate than herself.

Hear too about her more radical nature. Her role in the work of the United Irishmen, the 1798 rebellion and beyond. How she was devoted to her older brother Henry Joy – hanged for his leading role in the rebellion.

This walking tour takes in the locations linked to her life, her endeavours and that of her family. You will be led by an experienced guide through the same streets she walked over 200 years before. This new walking tour starts at Clifton House, where Mary Ann’s thirst for philanthropic causes first began, and where her impact can still be seen today, and finishes near Belfast City Hall.

Booking link
https://maryannmccrackenfoundation.org/events/upcoming/

Sleeping Beauty

On the eve of her birthday Rose pricks her finger on her birthday badge, propelling her into a sleepy state where she is mystically enticed from slumber into fairytale land.

Whilst there, Rose makes some new friends who aren’t all what they appear to be. With the help of fantastical flying orbs, a shape-shifting witch, and a neurotic knight, Rose meanders her way through the mystical magical land, returning home to Dad with a big message.

This modern musical adaption of the classic fairytale places deaf and hearing artists together in central roles. Featuring sign song, music, an interactive vibrational sound experience, and puppetry. It’s for all the family and is played in a relaxed environment, making it accessible to all audiences.

Doors 10.30am | Unreserved seating

Getting it Back: The Story of Cymande (NI Film Premiere)

The sons of Windrush parents, Cymande’s music combined influences from funk, calypso, soul and jazz, rock and African rhythms. Their sound ended up being one of the building blocks of hip hop, house and garage, sampled by the likes of De La Soul and Wu-Tang Clan. The story of Cymande is the story of the struggle of black British music, with some banging tunes along the way.

The first British band to play at Harlem’s legendary Apollo, their message of peace, love and funk sailed far beyond Britain’s shores and helped shape music for five decades. Long after they stopped playing in the 1970s, their innovative jazz-rock-funk music played on, with tracks including the iconic ‘Bra’ sampled by the likes of De La Soul, Wu-Tang Clan, the Sugarhill Gang, MC Solaar and the Fugees, so they returned to play some more. In Getting it Back, their story is told on screen for the first time, with tributes from a galaxy of musicians and producers influenced and enthralled by their music, includingMark Ronson, Norman Jay, Jazzie B, DJ Maseo of De la Soul, Jim James and Louie Vega.

Doors 12.30pm | Tickets £5.00

 

Jimi Hendrix (Film)

A moving and exhilarating celebration of the greatest rock guitarist that ever drew breath.  Featuring classic concert footage of Hendrix from 1967 to 1970, including the Monterey Pop Festival the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, Woodstock and a Berkeley concert.  Join us for a rare screening.

Made fifty years ago – and just three years after his untimely death, Jimi Hendrix is a moving and exhilarating celebration of the greatest rock guitarist that ever drew breath.

Co-directed by legendary music producer Joe Boyd, this wonderful film contains classic concert footage of Hendrix from 1967 to 1970, including the Monterey Pop Festival the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, Woodstock and a Berkeley concert. There are interviews by Hendrix’ contemporaries, family and friends. Others appearing in the film include Paul Caruso, Eric Clapton, Billy Cox, Alan Douglas, Germaine Greer, Hendrix’ father, James A. “Al” Hendrix, Mick Jagger, Eddie Kramer, Buddy Miles, Mitch Mitchell, Juggy Murray, Little Richard, Lou Reed and Pete Townshend.

Join us for a rare screening of this priceless musical document in remembrance of a stone-cold legend.

Doors 2.30pm | Tickets £6.00

 

Lara Ricote : GRL/LATNX/DEF

WINNER: Dave’s Best Newcomer at Edinburgh Fringe 2022

Lara’s a small Latin American girl (woman?) who won the Funny Women 2021 (right, ‘woman’) Stage Award and is now doing a show about what it’s like to be Latin and deaf and a girl who’s now a woman at the same time.

You know, minority jokes for majority crowds. If you read this and you don’t come, what’s that say about you? Huh? You hate disabled people? Maybe come and prove you don’t. Love you.

‘LARA RICOTE IS SEEMINGLY BLESSED WITH FUNNY BONES.’ ★★★★ Fest
‘WICKEDLY BLACK SENSE OF HUMOUR.’ Scotsman
GRL/LATNX/DEFIS A GIGGLING HOUR OF JOY.’ Time Out

As seen on E4, Comedy Central and Dave.

Performance captioned by Claire Hill: Wed 25 Jan, 8.30pm

Doors 1.30pm | Unreserved Seating

Susan O’Neill

Susan has spent the last few years honing her craft as a solo performer. A songwriter of hidden depths, with a timeless voice that is equal parts balm and blowtorch, she is audacity personified, a free spirit; a real performer.

As of now she is Ireland’s best kept secret, however with the release of In The Game her collaboration album with Mick Flannery that has all changed.

In The Game saw Susan receive nominations for theChoice Music prize and the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Awards for ‘Album of the Year’, ‘Female Folk Artist’ of the Year, and take home the Best Original Folk Track award for the collaborative song Chain Reaction.

Susan was also shortlisted for the Vanda and Young Award for her song These Are the Days.  The collaboration album ended up being the biggest selling Irish independent record of 2021.

Susan’s song Now you see It from her EP of the same name won the 2022 RTE Radio 1 ‘Best Original Folk Song’ of the year.

Doors 1.30pm | Unreserved seating

‘Superb” – Clash Magazine

“Sorrowful Masterpiece” – American Songwriter

“I love this fucking record”  – Phoebe Bridgers

★★★★“Two stars are reborn”  – The Irish Times

9/10 “Electrifying energy”  – Hot Press

★★★★ “Exquisite”  – Sunday Business Post

★★★★“Seductive, beautifully crafted album”  – The Sunday Times

★★★★‘It’s been a long long time since a record like this has come around”- The Independent

“The most beautiful duet album to be released this year” – Heaven Magazine 

Jude Rogers: The Sound of Being Human

We are delighted to welcome writer Jude Rogers to CQAF to discuss The Sound of Being Human–a brillant memoir which explores how music influences and shapes our lives. 

Blending memoir, incisive music criticism and scientific analysis– with the help of psychologists, biologists and academics – Rogers anatomises the powerful effects of music on its listeners. There’s a magic to the way that music makes us feel, and Rogers’s fascinating research only intensifies it.

Since 2005, Jude has written for the Guardian, the Observer, the Sunday Times, the Times Saturday Review, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, MOJO, Q, NME, The Quietus and The Gentlewoman.

She has written many cover stories and interviews, as well as many personal, heartfelt pieces about her love of music. Jude’s favourite anecdotes include Chrissie Hynde spontaneously painting her portrait in her flat at the end of an interview; sharing a Pret fish salad in New York with Björk after been flown over to America by her; Robert Plant making her a cup of PG Tips in Nashville while singing a Welsh hymn, and Lady Gaga feeding her whisky backstage at the O2, while she danced over her lap in her pants.

 ‘Too often we treat popular music as wallpaper surrounding us as we live our lives. Jude Rogers shows the emotional and cerebral heft such music can have. It’s a personal journey which becomes universal. Fascinating.’ – Ian Rankin

‘A stunning hybrid of memoir and music, sound tracking the indelible nature of sound. Rogers’ moving, lyrical sentences sing and stop you in your tracks.’–  Sinéad Gleeson

‘Moving and absorbing, The Sound Of Being Human mixes memoir, analysis, anecdote and personal chronicle into a mosaic that evokes what music means to the individual and the human tribe. A candid, beautiful read.’ – Stuart Maconie

‘Personal but universal,The Sound Of Being Human is a moving, funny and very smart exploration of what music does to you and how it does it.’ – Alexis Petridis

‘A perfect blend of the personal and the scientific, this is a fascinating and quietly brilliant book.’ – Brett Anderson

New Statesman Books to Read in 2022
GuardianBook to Watch in 2022

Doors 2.30pm | Unreserved seating

Tim Key: Mulberry

Tim Key (Alan Partridge, The Witchfinder,Tim Key’s Late Night Poetry Programme) is back with an all-new show. Ruminations about the great indoors with a bit of stamping around. Velour tracksuit, continental lagers, some “poetry”.

‘The greatest stand-up response to Lockdown so far’★★★★★The TimesKey’s new book,Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush, is available to buy at all good bookshops and at www.utterandpress.co.uk

Presented by The MAC and Plosive Live in association with PBJ Management

Doors 7:15pm | Tickets £18

Warmduscher

Written over a period of over a year in lockdown, At the Hotspot, produced by Joe Goddard and Al Doyle of Hot Chip, takes the raucous energy Warmduscher solidified on their critically acclaimed 2019 release Tainted Lunch, and injects it with a slightly more polished, ‘80s funk sound, kind of like stumbling home to your squatted loft after a drunken night at the local disco.

It’s crunchy on the outside, smooth on the inside, and might be the most immediately enjoyable music Warmduscher have ever graced us with.

The bulk of Warmduscher’s discography – the aforementioned Tainted Lunch, as well as 2018’s Whale City and 2016’s Khaki Tears – were produced by London stalwart Dan Carey, who was instrumental in helping the band hone their fuzzed out sound.

Unfortunately, at the beginning of At the Hotspot’s recording process, Dan caught COVID, and the band found themselves having to leave their comfort zone and find a new producer fast.

Luckily, they found two, under serendipitous circumstances.  “I was in the studio with Joe and Al of Hot Chip, doing an electronic project with Igor Cavallera of Sepultura and his wife, artist/musician Laima,” explains Clams. “When I got the message saying Dan couldn’t do the album, I was like, ‘Aw, fuck!’ Then Joe and Al were simply like, ‘We’ll do it!’ It was this really weird, happy accident.”

While At the Hotspot is still very much a Warmduscher album, with all its cracks and crevices oozing garage rock bravado, the production values buff out those jagged edges in a way only these two virtuoso producers could have pulled off.

“We’re just really psyched to play this whole thing live now,” states Clams matter-of-factly. “And it’s a whole revamp—new label, new producers, new logo—new everything.”

Doors 7.30pm | Mostly Standing

Joby Fox

Joby Fox’s new album I Once Was a Hawk Now I’m a Dove was recorded in Denmark with a young jazz group and in collaboration with one of Denmark’s top producers, Søren Mikkelsen in Medley Studios, Copenhagen. The songs are a great amalgamation of two cultures, fusing folk, pop and jazz.

Joby Fox is a native of Belfast, a songwriter, musician and storyteller, and a humanitarian; A diverse artist living between Belfast and Denmark with his roots firmly in Irish soil.

Joby is playing CQAF as part of a series of acoustic solo performances, stripped back to the bare bones which exposes the quality and raw power of the songs.

‘He has always been an emotional artist, but this is exceptional work.’ – STUART BAILLIE, BELFAST TELEGRAPH

Bernadette Morris: To The Well For Water Album Launch

Folk and traditional Irish singer-songwriter Bernadette Morris is an engaging performer who takes audiences on an emotional journey with a repertoire of songs that speak from and to the heart.

Bernadette is not only an extremely talented singer, performer, fiddle player and entertainer, she is also an exceptional songwriter.

Ten years on from the release of her critically acclaimed debut album at the CQAF, this is the launch of her latest album To the Well for Water recorded with Ben McAuley.

The recording has an array of talented musicians including Seán Óg Graham and Gerardy Thompson on guitar, Marie Morris on fiddle, Ryan Beagan on Bass, Enda Scahill on banjo and Rohan Young on bodhrán.

The album is a stunning mix of self-penned songs and co-writes with Johnny Brady, Cormac Neeson and Matt McGinn, amongst others.

‘Bernadette Morris is an amazing artist. She’s a powerful voice and a powerful female voice in Irish music.’ – RALPH McCLEAN, BBC

‘Pure of pipes, like an Irish Kate Rusby’ – THE SCOTSMAN

Doors 7.30pm | Unreserved seating

Expecting by Charis McRoberts

Shauna and Robbie are expecting… different things. Shauna expects motherhood won’t be easy. Robbie can’t wait to be a dad. Then she arrives.

Encountering financial difficulties alongside the arrival of baby Aisling and the barriers Shauna faces, Robbie spirals. Can Shauna and Robbie adjust their expectations and find a way back to one another? Break down barriers with C21 Theatre Company in an accessible new show as Shauna and Robbie plunge into parenthood. Will they sink or swim?

Directed by Stephen Kelly.

Please note: Both performances will be BSL interpreted.

Bone Machine play the music of Tom Waits

Bone Machine are a band of internationally renowned touring and recording musicians who perform a rebrand, melancholic, and punk jazz set of Tom Waits songs.

Whether or not the songs of Tom Waits play a central roll in your music collection, you simply have to experience this show live to feel the heaven-opening maelstrom of beauty scarcely captured by a live band.

From hits such as Martha, to I hope that I don’t fall in love with you, to Downtown Train, Bone Machine bring the heart, sweat and soul to performances brimming with a ramshackle sophistication and honesty as well as the renowned Waitsian monologues full of the funny anecdotes – for which Mr Waits is universally celebrated.

Their version of What’s He Building in There? has been critically applauded from Durban to Doolin!

From bourbon soaked ballads to evocative Godliness and anarchic elegance, there has never been a show that has captured the golden thread of what makes Tom Waits such a legend until now!

Ladies and gentlemen, let us present to you… BONE MACHINE!

Doors 7.30pm | Unreserved seating

Children of Zeus

Elixir live hip-hop Showcase is delighted to make a return to this year’s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival hosting Children of Zeus at the Oh Yeah Centre. 

Children of Zeus are a soul / hip-hop group from two of Manchester’s most respected artists Konny Kon and Tyler Daley. With both being recognised MCs and beat makers in their own right, the music they make is a reference / reflection and a nod to the music of their childhood influences and their taste for timeless sounds.

Children of Zeus came to break the trend and bring a soulful music to the forefront which was felt with the introduction of Story so Far and repeated with Travel Light providing a much needed continuation of Manchester’s rich musical history. Working with the likes of Beat Butcha on their latest project Balance, Children of Zeus have built up a solid fan base and reputation for a serious live show.

We are delighted to welcome multi–instrumentalists, Belfast Groove Collective on support, specialising in Hip-Hop, Jazz, soul and R&B with guest vocalists.

Northern Irish DJ collective Antidote DJs will host the night and fill in the blanks before, after and in between live performances.

Tom Hingley (Solo, Acoustic)

Tom Hingley is the former frontman of one of the founding members of Manchester’s The Inspiral Carpets.

Tom was the frontman during their most successful period from 1989 – 1995 finally leaving the band in 2011, singing on iconic tracks such as ‘This Is How It Feels’, ‘She Comes In The Fall’, ‘Saturn 5’, ‘Joe’, ‘Sackville’ and many more.

He’s since toured the world as a solo artist as well as with his bands ‘The Lovers’ & ‘The Kar-Pets’ and brings his new show of Inspiral’s classics and solo material to CQAF.

Doors 7.30pm | Limited Unreserved Seating

Supported By

dormant
embrace
FHM
up

Contact

The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival and Out To Lunch are annual festivals of music, comedy, theatre, art and literature which take place in January and May in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Join our mailing list to keep up to date with festival news, events and early ticket releases.

View Our Privacy Policy

Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival / Out To Lunch Arts Festival
Unit 8
Northern Whig House
Bridge Street
Belfast
BT1 1LU