The newest of Belfast's trio of arts festivals is taking its cue from the historic quarter in which it has flourished, writes Jane Coyle.
There is a saying in Belfast that Donegall Street, one of the city's oldest thoroughfares, is like a spendthrift, because it begins at the bank and ends in the poorhouse. Both buildings are still there. The former Northern Bank, an imposing Victorian building that was originally the Northern Ireland Assembly Rooms, where the United Irishman Henry Joy McCracken was tried, is now a temporary theatre. The poorhouse, the splendid maroon-bricked Clifton House, has been given a dramatic facelift and turned into upmarket apartments. It looks down the long spine of Donegall Street, which bisects a maze of cobbled streets, hidden squares and courtyards with the great white Portland stone cube of the Cathedral Church of St Anne at its heart.
It was here, in this historic part of Belfast, at the turn of the new millennium, that the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival was born. It was a fairly modest affair, seed-funded by Laganside Corporation, which is the driving force in the regeneration of the area. In just three years, the festival has established itself as a cornerstone of Northern Ireland's cultural year, with an impressive programme of small- to medium-scale cutting-edge events.
The festival and its quarter have matured in tandem. Laganside Corporation designated the rundown area around Donegall Street for development in 1997, although moves had been afoot for some time to establish it as a cultural enclave.
Seán Kelly, the festival's director, credits Martin Lynch, a community-arts activist and playwright, and Brendan Mackin of Belfast Unemployed Resource Centre as the main movers, working and lobbying from their neighbouring bases. In 1999, with the Belfast actor and director Ian McElhinney, Lynch had urged Kelly to put forward his proposal for a local arts festival.
"It was a time when there was a noticeable sense of something happening on the north side of the city," says Kelly. "The idea of a new cultural quarter was being promoted and I felt that there was a real dynamic starting up. The ceasefires had been in place for a few years and the city centre had really opened up. It was as though the time was right . . . . There was a gap in the provision of arts activity of a certain kind in Belfast at certain times of the year. For as long as I can remember, the Queen's festival was the dominant arts event. It was, and remains, excellent, but like most arts activity it was located mainly on the south side, with all the associations that go with the geography of the area: the university and high levels of social and economic affluence."
When Laganside agreed to seed-fund the first Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Kelly set about programming an event of which the residents, the artists and the business community of the area could feel real ownership. Timing was crucial. With so many events within walking distance of one another, the aim was that the good weather of early summer should add to the general sense of celebration and enjoyment.
"The ethos has always been informal, accessible, inclusive and social but without compromising on high standards of challenge and innovation," says Kelly. "We wanted tickets to be affordable, and we set out to investigate new, inventive ways of marketing. Our aim was to create an atmosphere of warmth and friendliness, with events taking place in small, intimate venues. In three years, we have brought our audience along with us. The festival has gained many friends and a strong core audience, some of whom spend between £70 and £80 \ on tickets."
With the Belfast Festival at Queen's in late October and Féile An Phobail in west Belfast in August, the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival has provided the third side of a triangle, neatly positioning itself chonologically and politically. "This festival started out with no baggage: without the academic tradition of the Queen's festival nor the political and cultural labels of Féile An Phobail. We came to it with a blank page and have written our own profile, which customers and performers seem to like," says Kelly
With funding from the Foyle Foundation, set up in memory of the London book-seller Christina Foyle to widen access to arts and literary events, Kelly has been able to set up the Quarter Pounder scheme, which allows youth and community groups and the unwaged to buy tickets to some of the events for £1. With a projected income of between £100,000 and £120,000 (€145,000-€175,000) he expects this year's festival to break even, although he admits that trying to stay in the black can be a white-knuckle ride. Still, he feels the event's economic worth is being recognised and says every pound spent at the festival circulates three or four times around the local economy.
Although much of the intervening year is taken up with writing endless funding applications, Kelly's biggest buzz comes from programming. His special interest is the literature programme, which this year boasts two big names, in Frank McCourt and Pete McCarthy, and two huge names, in Benjamin Zephaniah and Patti Smith.
"I nearly fell off my chair when the call came through that Patti Smith had accepted," Kelly grins. "It was one of those great moments, worth all the hours spent grafting over application forms. I enjoy programming live events that promote the spoken and written word. Although Belfast has a great poetic tradition, it needs to be brought to life. In other European cities, there are cafes with poetry slams and performance readings every week. We need to instil a bit of that spirit here."
Walking through the Cathedral Quarter, you are struck by the rich vein of history and culture, the lifeblood of the festival. A natural starting point is the John Hewitt Bar, on Donegall Street, which began life at the same time as the festival. Its bottle-green exterior bears the name of Belfast's best-known socialist poet; inside, among the dark panelled walls and brass fittings, a liberal, artistic, literary atmosphere has flourished almost of its own accord.
This is one of the venues for traditional and world music, poetry and small-scale performance. It is also the unofficial festival club, where artists congregate at the end of the evening.
Beside the cathedral, itself the venue for a concert by the recently formed Celtic Lyre Orchestra, is the University of Ulster's art college, where visual-arts events will be held. Conor Hall, in the students' union, will stage larger concerts, live BBC broadcasts and Smith's landmark appearance. Opposite the magnificent colonnaded Ulster Bank building is Cotton Court, an 18th-century warehouse that has become a home for cultural organisations and will provide the festival with another space for visual-arts events. In a former warehouse on Gordon Street is Belfast Circus School, which will host a colourful weekend of entertainment in the shape of its famous Circus Cabaret.
As Kelly puts it, the quarter used to be a melting pot of Belfast life. "Sixty years ago, these streets were known as Little Italy, because of the large number of Italian immigrant families who lived here. The streets to the right were called the Half Bap, after the famous home bakery. The gay community has always been linked with this part of town and the Parliament is still a popular gay bar.
"This was the heart of the United Irishmen's movement and, being close to the docks, it was the haunt of sailors and prostitutes, revolutionaries and radical thinkers. . . . Belfast used to provide linen and rope to the world, but in the absence of those heavy industries people have moved away and the city has been reimagined and reinvented. But it is the rich history of this locality which informs and colours our festival."
Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival begins on Thursday. More information from 048- 90232403 or www.cqaf.com
