Culture Night Belfast

The Cathedral Quarter Trust set up Culture Night Belfast (CNB) in 2009 and led on delivery annually up until 2021. The city’s largest free cultural celebration, Culture Night grew from c15,000 attendees in 2009 to a height of c100,000 people for the two-day 2019 event. While very popular with the public, the exponential growth of the event presented an increasing challenge for the Trust in terms of resource, capacity to deliver and operational complexity. The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the suspension of the event in September 2020 – we staged a digital version instead.  In the same year we also commissioned a Strategic Review in partnership with Belfast City Council.

Following the Review, which highlighted the challenges of the existing event format, we initiated a period of intense reflection about the future direction of travel for Culture Night Belfast. 

Part of this process of reflection led to the delivery of CNB21 Presents the Ogham Grove, a large-scale outdoor installation which marked a departure from the usual Culture NIght format. 

Up until early 2023, CQT was working on the development of a new flagship event for the city, incorporating the recommendations and feedback from the Strategic Review. As a result of funding cuts to CQT, however, this work has been put in hold indefinitely. 

For a flavour of what Culture NIght Belfast had to offer please check out our videos below: