Festival

Belfast International Arts Festival

OVERVIEW

Address

109-113 Royal Avenue, Belfast, BT1 1FF, Belfast

Email

enquiries@belfastinternationalartsfestival.com

Website

belfastinternationalartsfestival.com

Phone

+ 44 (0)28 9033 2261

Programming Policy

Belfast International Arts Festival (BIAF) is Northern Ireland’s leading international arts festival dedicated to contemporary performance, media and visual arts, and programming that cuts across traditional artform boundaries, with key elements of commissioning and premiering new works and showcasing the best new and established Northern Irish artists to global audiences. Our mission is to be the preeminent, progressive international arts event within Northern Ireland, actively engaging both global and local communities in the richness and diversity of contemporary arts practice. With our partners throughout the entire city, we seek to create a distinctive environment for audiences to enjoy and participate in inspirational and transformative aesthetic experiences from world-class artists, thinkers and leaders. The annual event, which reflects and promotes both our changing city and the continuing evolution of creative practice from around the world, incorporates theatre, dance, music, visual arts, film, literature, and outdoor events, accompanied by outreach and education events. We use a mix of arts venues, non-traditional arts venues and public spaces across Belfast city centre and neighbourhoods. As a curated festival, participation is by invitation only. The festival was hosted by Queen’s University until 2015, after which a new independent organisation (a company limited by guarantee and registered as a charity) was formed with the support of all stakeholders to deliver a new artistic vision for the event.