Greetings from The Wolf & Seahorse
Belfast has booked two outdoor sites at the same time this week and filled both. Between Tuesday 18 and Tuesday 25 August, Boucher Playing Fields and Custom House Square are running four major shows across three day.
Lewis Capaldi opens Belfast Vital on Thursday with Loyle Carner, while Faithless take Custom House Square the same evening.
Saturday brings Calvin Harris to Boucher and Stiff Little Fingers to CHSq with The Undertones, Ruts DC and Terri Hooley on the decks.
The Wailers are at Mandela Hall on Wednesday. Trainspotting is back at the QFT in 4K for its thirtieth birthday, the Grand Opera House is running a family festival all week, and there is Tai Chi at 2 Royal Avenue if any of that sounds like too much.
This is our pick of what's on this week. As always for a full event list check out the link at the bottom of the email.
Let's dive in 👇
EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
Belfast Vital: Lewis Capaldi and Calvin Harris
Thursday 20 August · 17:00 and Saturday 22 August · 16:00 · Boucher Playing Fields
Capaldi's return to Belfast sold out, and after everything that's happened to him in the last few years the room will be doing at least as much work as he is. Loyle Carner is on the same bill, which is a stranger and better pairing than it looks on paper. Saturday flips entirely to Calvin Harris with Jazzy, and that one still had tickets at the time of writing, though not many. Boucher holds a serious crowd, so give the Lisburn Road a wide berth on both days.
Stiff Little Fingers: Putting the Fast in Belfast 8
Saturday 22 August · 18:00 · Custom House Square
Eight years running, Stiff Little Fingers have built their own hometown festival, and this year's bill is close to a history of Northern Irish punk in one afternoon. The Undertones, Ruts DC and the Sabrejets are all on, and Terri Hooley is DJing, which means the man who signed Teenage Kicks and gave away the rights is standing in a city square playing records to the people it was written for. Gates at six. There is a warm-up at the Limelight from two in the afternoon if you want the full day.
Faithless
Thursday 20 August · 18:00 · Custom House Square
Their biggest Belfast headline show to date, outdoors, with Justin Robertson opening. Insomnia, God Is A DJ, We Come 1 and Salva Mea have outlived most of what shared a chart with them, largely because Sister Bliss built them to work at exactly this scale. Six o'clock start in a city-centre square, which is an unusual way to hear this catalogue and probably the right one. Clashes directly with Capaldi at Boucher, so pick a side.
BBC Radio 3 Concert
Tuesday 18 August · Ulster Hall
A Radio 3 broadcast concert in the Ulster Hall, which was built for exactly this and has the acoustics to prove it. Broadcast concerts tend to run tight and start on time. Check the venue listing for the programme.
The Wailers
Wednesday 19 August · 19:00 · Mandela Hall
Fifty years of Rastaman Vibration, with Aston Barrett Jr. leading the band his father anchored for Bob Marley, and Mitchell Brunings on vocals. Belfast opens the Irish leg, ahead of Cork and Dublin, so this is the one where they're still figuring out the room. Mandela Hall's return has been one of the better things to happen to the city's live circuit. Bring ID, they're strict.
Madi
Thursday 20 August · The Court House, Bangor
Jazz in Bangor on a Thursday, twenty minutes down the line from Great Victoria Street. The Court House has quietly become a decent room for this kind of booking while the city centre chased bigger things. Worth the train.
Reflect: EP Launch
Friday 21 August · 19:00 · Oh Yeah Music Centre
An EP launch at the Oh Yeah Centre, all ages from fourteen up, which is the whole reason that building exists. Launch nights there have a particular energy because everyone in the room knows the band personally. Cheap, early, and you'll be out by ten.
City Wide Fleadh Fringe
Friday 21 August · The Duncairn
The Fleadh proper has packed up and the fringe is still going at the Duncairn, which is generally where the better sessions end up anyway. North Belfast's arts centre has one of the warmest rooms in the city for trad. Check the listing for the night's line-up.
The Outcasts
Saturday 22 August · 14:00 · The Limelight 1
The official warm-up for Stiff Little Fingers at Custom House Square, and The Outcasts were there for all of it first time round, Belfast 1977 onwards. A two o'clock start means you can do this and still make the square for six. That is a long Saturday, and it is the correct way to spend it.
Times Like These
Saturday 22 August · 19:00 · Limelight 2
A Foo Fighters tribute in Limelight 2 while Stiff Little Fingers play a field ten minutes away. If the punk bill isn't your thing, this is the other loud option, and Limelight 2 is small enough that loud means loud. Straightforward night.
Worldwide at the Waterfront
Saturday 22 August · Waterfront Hall
New Irish Arts and the Worldwide Missionary Convention put an orchestra, a choir and guest artists on the Waterfront's main stage, with Alistair Begg speaking. It's a large-scale evening of music and testimony and it fills the hall every year. Very different Saturday to the one happening at Custom House Square.
Beneath the Surface
Tuesday 18 to Friday 21 August · From 10:00 · Belfast Exposed Photography
Belfast Exposed has been showing documentary photography off Donegall Street since 1983 and remains the most consistently interesting free gallery in the city. Beneath the Surface runs through the week. Twenty minutes, no charge, and it is on the way to everything in the Cathedral Quarter.
Bach, Bows and Arrows: An Audience with Julian and Jiaxin Lloyd Webber
Wednesday 19 August · 19:30 · Lyric Theatre
Two cellists, married, working through Bach's cello suites and explaining what they inherited and what they passed on, with as much talking as playing. Julian Lloyd Webber stopped performing in 2014 after a neck injury and has spent the years since teaching and advocating, so an evening built around conversation suits him. The Lyric is the right size for something this conversational.
Rip It Up: Trainspotting
Friday 21 to Thursday 27 August · Queen's Film Theatre
Thirty years old, restored in 4K, and it opens the QFT's run of Rip It Up, a BFI-funded season on youth rebellion on screen. The film has aged into something closer to a document than the provocation it was in 1996, and the Iggy Pop and Underworld cues still do exactly what Danny Boyle built them to do. Everyone at Friday's opening night gets a free poster by the Belfast illustrator Mel Carroll. There's a descriptive subtitles screening on Saturday at 12:30.
Abba by Candlelight, Summer Edition
Thursday 20 August · 18:30 · Cabaret Supper Club, Upper Arthur Street
A prosecco reception, a main course and a live Abba set by candlelight, which is either exactly your idea of a Thursday or absolutely not. The Cabaret Supper Club commits to the format without embarrassment, and that commitment is why it works. Dinner and show in one booking, so no scrambling for a table beforehand.
Grand Family Festival
Tuesday 18 to Saturday 22 August · Grand Opera House
The Grand Opera House has given over a week to workshops for children, and this week's run includes digital art on Tuesday, Mexican Ojo de Dios craft on Wednesday and a tour of the night sky on Thursday. Getting children inside that building and making things in it is a better introduction to theatre than sitting them in a seat. Individual booking per workshop, and they are small.
Family Fun Day with Ulster Rugby
Friday 21 August · 14:00 · Affidea Stadium
Ulster open the ground for a family afternoon before the season proper starts, in association with the Sleepy Hollow Group. Getting onto the pitch at Ravenhill is the draw and everyone involved knows it. Two o'clock, and it will be busy.
Base Arcade
Friday 21 and Saturday 22 August · Banana Block
A pop-up arcade and pinball hall in the old mill at Banana Block, which is one of the more interesting reuses of an east Belfast industrial building. Pinball is a better family activity than it has any right to be, because the eight-year-old and the fifty-year-old are on equal terms. Two nights only.
Tai Chi
Thursday 20 August · 13:00 · 2 Royal Avenue
Qigong, Tai Chi and Karate-Do movements run as meditation in motion, at lunchtime, in the middle of town, for nothing. 2 Royal Avenue has become the most useful building in Belfast for exactly this sort of thing. One o'clock, no booking, no gear.
Best of 3 Saturday Comedy
Saturday 22 August · 14:30 · The Green Room, The Black Box
Three comics, half two in the afternoon, cheap in. Daytime stand-up is a strange proposition and the Black Box's Green Room is small enough to make it work. Done by four, which leaves the evening entirely free for whichever field you've chosen.
For a full overview of all events on this week in Belfast check out our event listings page
UNTIL NEXT WEEK
Thanks for reading The Wolf & Seahorse!
If you enjoy the newsletter or you find it useful here are some ways you can help us:
💌 Forward it to a friend, neighbour, or your local WhatsApp group
📝 If you were sent this and want in on the action, sign up here.
💛 Consider supporting the newsletter with a monthly subscription (coming soon)
See you next week 👋
P.S. Not feeling it anymore? No hard feelings. You can unsubscribe from the email footer below