A bang, not a whimper

We're all hoping the only big bangs in the North this year will be those of fireworks to celebrate Hallowe'en - which this year inaugurates the Belfast Festival. Yes, the Belfast Festival has finally shifted from its November penumbra, and, in the context of its enhanced funding as one of the island-wide series of Millennium Festivals, will run from the Hallowe'en weekend until November 14th.

Some details of the programme will be available before long, but we have winkled out of the organisers the news that the National Theatre of Lithuania's Cherry Orchard and Masquerade (based on a Lemontov poem) will be among the expected highlights of the theatre programme.

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WE have a strange invitation for Sunday, July 18th - come and drink Absolut vodka and eat canapes and watch over 50 "celebrities, artists, media and the general public" creating a "masterpiece" in Sandymount Strand car-park. The event will be opened by artist Tony Hart, and word has it that Tracey Emin, that star of the UK art firmament, will take part. The "masterpiece" will be auctioned and the funds donated to Goal.

Feile an Phobail/West Belfast Festival (July 31st to August 8th) may have lost Mother Bernadette from its line-up (note for readers living in igloos in Siberia: that's Sinead O'Connor), but singer Frances Black, comedian Tommy Tiernan, the Afro-Celt Sound System and Status Quo are still coming. Dubbeljoint and Justus, who have presented shows with a strongly Republican perspective in recent years, Just a Prisoner's Wife and Binlids, present Forced Upon Us: "a dramatic argument about the history and experiences that lie behind the call for the RUC to disband".

Local rate credit card hotline from the South: 1890-556584; from the North: 01232- 209090

The most interesting element of the new programme of the Lyric in Belfast is surely a new production of Frank Mc Guinness's Carthaginians, set in the aftermath of Bloody Sunday . Directed by Simon Magill, it will run from August 24th to September 18th. Productions of Waiting for Godot and Twelfth Night are also coming, as well as Barabbas's wonderful Whiteheaded Boy and "to see out the old millennium", Hansel and Gretel, though one can only wonder why it was considered so appropriate - is the millennium to be left behind in the woods like the children, or what . . .

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Bride Rosney, who sold us Mary Robinson's message so brilliantly, is working with the Arts Council on presenting the Arts Council's new Arts Plan to the arts sector and the wider community. July 28th is the latest date at which the Plan can be adopted before the summer break - if it goes beyond that, we may be waiting until September.

This weekend there will be an informal "colloquy" about contemporary art and its place in contemporary culture as part of the Open EV+A at Limerick City Gallery - phone 061-310633 . . . The National Gallery is running innovative summer art classes for children and for teenagers - phone 016615133 for information . .