Beat Carnival invites the whole city to take to Ormeau Park on Saturday 25 June for the first ever Belfast Carnival Village.
Beat Carnival will transform the Park into a theatrical wonderland for all the family, featuring arts and crafts workshops, performing puppets, mouth-watering food stalls, mad hatter tea parties, crazy golfers, orchestrated musicians, interactive drum circles and one gigantic parade and music finale.
Iconic Belfast landmarks such as the Harland & Wolff Cranes and Albert Clock will be an integral part of the fun and games. The Carnival will also welcome many of Northern Ireland’s prominent food traders in conjunction with Tourism NI’s Year of Food and Drink 2016 including Belfalafel, Tricycle Trading, Hogplate, Aunt Sandra’s Handmade Candy & Fudge and The Gluten Free Patisserie.
Belfast Carnival Village is a Beat Carnival project to create a Carnival Arts event in Belfast with a different type of audience experience. Usually carnival audiences just watch a street parade as it passes by. In Belfast Carnival Village visitors can have a whole range of experiences, including participation in event activities, over the full afternoon.
David Boyd, Beat Carnival Director, said: “We are excited about the sense of ‘carnival community’ there will be in Belfast on 25th, with our long-time carnival enthusiasts, new audience, artists and performers all enjoying and being part of the creative spirit.”
Programme highlights include Carnival Arts games and workshops where people of all ages are welcome to draw, dance and drum, puppet shows in the Albert Clock, performances from Beatndrum, Ulster Youth Orchestra and Belfast Guitar Orchestra, a picnic with the Mad Hatter and a special music finale. There will also be performances and activities from partnering organisations including Beyond Skin/Music Unite, Belfast Community Circus, Open Arts and Wheelworks Art Cart.
The Belfast Carnival Village is the final of the high-quality events funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and Belfast City Council through the Creative and Cultural Belfast Fund.
Noirin McKinney, Director of Arts Development at Arts Council NI, said: “Belfast Carnival Village is one of seven ambitious, exciting events taking place in Belfast as part of the Creative Belfast initiative. Through the initiative, Belfast Baby Day, Draw Down the Walls, Nine Nights, Tempest and Farset have already delivered thrilling experiences for participants and audiences unlike anything which the city has seen before. Belfast Carnival Village promises a day of unimaginable fun, full of colour and celebration and I would encourage everyone to get involved in something amazing.”
The Lord Mayor of Belfast, Alderman Brian Kingston, said: “The Creative Belfast programme has been an amazing success, helping to bring people together from communities across the city, from all walks of life and backgrounds, to participate in some of the most ambitious arts and cultural activities ever staged in our city. The Belfast Carnival Village will be a special way to end this unique programme of events, by helping our people to celebrate their city, its heritage and its ambition for the future, in a truly fun way.”