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Date: 14 May 2026
Belfast will showcase its UNESCO City of Music status with a vibrant, diverse and exciting array of musical talent for this summer’s Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann.
Belfast City Council and Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann have today announced further details of the line-up for the eight day festival, running from Sunday 2 to Sunday 9 August. The details include additional headline acts, major musical showcases, highlights from its 90+ event fringe programme and tickets for the famous Senior Céilí Band Competition.
Today’s announcement has been shared on a landmark date - exactly 75 years since the first Fleadh was held in Mullingar on 13-14 May 1951.
Main programme
Highlights from the main programme include:
• NI singer songwriter Foy Vance will be among the artists performing at the closing event on Sunday 9 August. The Bangor-born artist, who is signed to Ed Sheeran’s Gingerbread Man Records, will also perform an intimate pop up gig during the week, with further details to follow next month.
• The closing event will also play host to the newly crowned winners of the Senior Céilí Band Competition, with a performance that has become an iconic part of the event’s impressive finale.
The competition will take place earlier that afternoon (Sunday 9 August) as part of a titanic showdown in the equally impressive Waterfront Hall. Viewed as the event’s pinnacle competition and the launchpad for some of the biggest names in the trad scene, tickets for the iconic event are now on sale from fleadhcheoil.ie
• Commissioned especially for the opening event on Sunday 2 August, the already announced ‘Sharing Traditions’ showcase will reflect the festival’s ambition to ‘celebrate together’ by fusing traditional Irish music with Dhol drummers, Indian dancers, flute and pipe bands and Highland dancers.
As performers join forces to celebrate Belfast’s shared identity, the opening event will send a powerful message of inclusion and kickstart Fleadh Cheoil in style. The special collaboration takes place ahead of an evening of exciting performances, including traditional Irish music legend Sharon Shannon and her Big Band.
• Acclaimed Belfast composer Neil Martin will direct Connections – a special multicultural music experience on the Gig Rig stage at City Hall on Friday 7 August.
A renowned uilleann piper and cellist who has collaborated with Christy Moore, The Dubliners and The Chieftains, Martin will lead this collaboration with ArtsEkta and a cast of 12 musicians and dancers, blending Irish traditional music with sounds from Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, Latin America and beyond.
• Also taking to the main stage on Friday evening will be Lúnasa, whose members have formed the backbone of some of the greatest Irish groups of the decade.
• On Thursday 6 August, Donegal’s all-female group Sí Fiddlers will blend the finest fiddlers from Glencolumcille to Inishowen and everywhere in between.
• Also on Thursday evening, the Titanic Slipways will provide a dramatic backdrop for the Ulster Bands showcase, a colourful celebration of Unionist and Ulster Scots culture led by Belfast Bands Forum. Audiences can explore the deep roots of traditional flute bands through Lambeg drumming, pipe bands and traditional Scottish dancing.
• In addition to the showcases and concerts, there will be ceilís and singing seisiúns in the Europa Hotel, lectures and talks at the Linenhall Library and recitals at 2 Royal Avenue.
• Details of all announced performances are available now from fleadhcheoil.ie, with ticketed events on sale from Friday 5 June.
Fringe programme
The energy of Fleadh Cheoil will extend beyond the main stages and venues too, with a fringe festival focused on bringing Belfast’s rich cultural diversity to life through art, dance, performances, family activities and community participation, and stretching out from the city centre and into local neighbourhoods.
City centre highlights will include:
• NI Science Festival will host Neuromusicology, a unique live show looking at the powerful relationship between the human brain and playing the harp, while the Golden Thread Gallery will translate the rhythm and tempo of trad music into a giant collaborative art canvas.
• Beat Carnival will bring their trademark burst of high energy, percussive music to the streets with a special performance while DJ Paddy will also energise the crowd by bringing together beats and bodhráns for the famous Trisco or trad disco. This will be one of several ticketed gigs at the Limelight.
• The MAC will operate as the festival’s Irish language hub, offering a week of language learning, music, art, storytelling and workshops, all delivered in Irish, while the Corn Exchange will host a programme of events promoting Ulster Scots language and tradition.
• Other venues staging events and activities include Writers’ Square, Saltwater Square, Craft NI, Central Library, Oh Yeah Music Centre, St Anne’s Cathedral and the Black Box.
• All details will be shared on fleadhcheoil.ie in the coming weeks.
Beyond the city centre, neighbourhoods will be joining in the craic too:
• Over 50 official events are planned for north, south, east and west Belfast to animate spaces and engage with communities before, during and after the Fleadh.
• Collaborating with more than 300 artists and 60 organisations, neighbourhood-based fringe activities will deliver a programme of music, poetry, drama, visual arts and community events.
• Highlights will include a performance animating the Waterworks with pop-up music, storytelling and poetry stations around the lake, inspired by the park’s dramatic Cave Hill backdrop, as well as events in regenerated alleyways across south Belfast, inviting communities to enjoy time together with céilís and community meals.
• In the east of the city, storyteller Alex Campbell will celebrate Irish oral traditions with tales of ancient heroes over coffee, while Colin Glen Forest Park will be the venue for a guided folklore walk to discover the hidden stories behind the city’s native trees and plants.
• Voting has also taken place in the council’s Bank of Ideas scheme which will see a further 35 creative projects rolled out in local communities as part of Fleadh Cheoil, with the aim of bringing communities together and encouraging visitors to explore more of the city during their stay.
• Further details of the full fringe programme, and successful Bank of Ideas projects, will be announced in the coming weeks.