Culture Night Belfast 2025

Culture Night Belfast is back with a fresh format - for 2025 activity will be in venues across Belfast, curated specifically to be inclusive and accessible.

Crescent Arts Centre is open 4-7pm. Join us any time! All activity is drop-in and open to all ages.

Presented by Maiden Voyage Dance, Fighting Words NI, NI Science Festival and Crescent Arts Centre, come along for an evening of art activities, map workshops, zine-making and dance performances.

 

Maiden Voyage Dance presents 'haiku' 

Location in building: The Cube

This Culture Night catch Maiden Voyage’s haiku, a dance work for public space from acclaimed choreographer Erik Kaiel. The piece is an ode to friendship and the ways in which we try to find our tribe and be seen and accepted for who we are. Friendship unlocks a way of seeing and being in the world so we are more free to be ourselves. haiku celebrates small poetic moments as more powerful than grand gestures. 

Performance start times: 5.15pm and 6.15pm. The piece lasts 20 minutes - but doors will remain open during the performance. 

 

Fighting Words NI invites you to connect with stories at our Campfire Story Time and Zine-Making:

Location in The Crescent: David Hill Studio

Join Fighting Words NI for our campfire-inspired story time session, for young readers and writers, and their grown-ups. Cosy up under our canopy with books and blankets to share a story together - or read aloud to others. Books will be provided, but please bring your silliest voices and funniest sound effects! 

Or, if you've got a favourite children's picture book, you're welcome to bring it along with you. If your budding young author has been inspired to create their own story, we'll have Fighting Words NI mentors on standby to help craft their own mini-story, and turn it into a paper zine to bring home with our drop-in storymaking activities. For cartoonists and graphic novelists, we'll have plenty of drawing supplies too.

 

NI Science Festival bring the maps! 

Location in The Crescent: David Hill Studio

Join NI Science Festival for a hands-on drop-in workshop exploring 200 years of Ordnance Survey history in Ireland. Discover how maps have shaped our landscape, uncover the tools of the surveyors, and share your own map memories. 

Whether you're a history buff, a map lover, or just curious – come and explore the hidden stories under your feet.  

This activity is part of the Maps and Memories project with NI Science Festival, National Trust, Queen's University Belfast, Ordnance Survey and Historic Environment Division. Marking two centuries of mapping, measurement, and meaning.  

 

Crescent Arts Centre invites you to get crafty

Join three artists for crafty activities. 

• Crescent Arts Centre is an iconic building in Belfast with a rich history, full of creativity, connections and learning. Patrick Hickey has been commissioned to create a drawing of the building on a large scale canvas, and you are invited to come along and help Patrick bring the image to life by adding a splash colour. 
• On any given day there are people doing creative activities in The Crescent. Join Art Tutor Karl Hagan for a taste of some of these!  
• Make your own book-inspired badge: Taking inspiration from The Crescent’s current exhibition, the Art of Translation, join artist Ronan Lee Smyth to make your own Badge. Using scraps of paper, magazine cuttings or book pages, participants can collage, write and draw on pieces of card that can be pressed into badges. Let your creative spirit run wild, as you can use words, titles, characters, colour combinations or perhaps symbols from your favourite books (or book covers you see in the exhibition)
• Reading can be a superpower. And what do all great Superheros need? Their very own cape! Come along and make your Superhero capes, decorated with things you see in the exhibition space. or maybe you want to add details about your favourite books! With Ronan Lee Smyth. 

 

Patrick, Ronan, and Karl all teach regular courses at The Crescent. All materials provided. 

 

Exhibition: Art of Translation

Location: Café 

Every book cover tells a story. They aim to capture the essence of what’s inside – a novel, a collection of poetry or short stories, a memoir - but that essence can look and feel very different depending on where and when you buy the book. The book you buy in Belfast may look very different to the same title you buy in Italy or China. 

Curated by Anna Morrison, the Art of Translation exhibition features titles by Irish writers - in their original language, alongside editions in translation: see how the covers vary!  

This will also be the last chance to see the Exhibition. 

 

Pop along anytime between 4 - 7pm. Café Husk will be open serving hot and cold drinks, and variety of sweet and savoury bites.  

Plus The Crescent Shop will be open selling artist-designed items that may meet your stationary/art needs!  

For more details on all Cutlrue Night Belfast events visit: https://culturenight.ie/location/belfast/