Gentry Morris Online Album Launch 26th March
On the 26th of March Gentry Morris, American singer/songwriter now living in N. Ireland, will be launching his third studio album entitled “Awake O Sleeper”. (more…)
Year: 2010
Calling all twits, tweeters and tits to Slide down to Ann Street
On Thursday 25th March people from every corner of the globe will come together to raise money for charity. There’ll be celebrity bowling in New York City, a cupcake and magicians’ party in Edinburgh, and a book signing in San Francisco. Not wanting to be left out Belfast will host their very own Twestival at Slide on Ann Street. (more…)
HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO WIN A DIAMOND?
Diamond Quest Ireland comes to Newry, Mourne and Carlingford on Saturday 15th May 2010, challenging participants to push themselves to the limit in an exhilarating running, biking and kayaking race. (more…)
IM A CELEBRITY GET ME TO THE FATE AWARDS!
This year’s Fate Awards in association with Diet Coke will see the largest turnout of homegrown talent and celebrities from across the UK arrive in Belfast to showcase the very best the Northern Ireland entertainment and hospitality industry has to offer.
Now in its fourth year, this year’s Fate Awards will celebrate the dedication shown by those working in the industry in one of the toughest years and the celebrities will be out in force to recognise their achievements.
The Party of the Decade will be hosted by the King of the Jungle himself, Christopher Biggins and he will be assisted on the biggest ever Fate Awards stage by former Miss Great Britain and Fate Awards Media Personality nominee Gemma Garrett while Northern Ireland voice of the ‘X Factor’, Peter Dickson will be heard announcing the winners throughout the evening.
Duran Duran legend drummer Roger Taylor will make his Irish DJing debut at the aftershow party and partying the night away with him will be Eamonn Holmes and his partner Ruth Langsford, who will be joined by her ‘Loose Women’ friends Denise Welsch and Carol McGiffin.
Recent winner of ‘Popstar to Operastar’ Darius Campbell and ‘Apprentice’ runner up Kate Walsh will be there with fellow contestant Philip Taylor and our very own Ben Clarke.
Gavin and Stacey star Margaret ‘Doris’ John, Pamela Ballantine, Nicola T, Paul Rankin, Rory McIlroy and Michael Deane will celebrate the Fate Awards winners with Michelle Heaton and celebrity make up artist Gary Cockerill and DIY expert Phil Turner.
Kim Woodburn and her jungle friend Sam Fox will be partying with Gail Porter who will make her second appearance at the awards. Gerard McCarthy will line up with Pete Snodden, Julian Simmons, Zoe Salmon and Gemma to find out who’s won this year’s Media Personality Award as voted for by Sunday Life readers.
Michael Mervyn-Jones, Publisher of Fate Magazine, said; “I really can’t wait until this year’s Fate Awards. The excitement is building for the sold out event which is really shaping up to be the Party of the Decade. With the Europa Hotel completely transformed, we’ll celebrate those who have worked so hard through one of the most difficult trading years of recent times to contribute to Northern Ireland’s thriving entertainment and hospitality industry.
“With the economy showing green shoots of recovery, the Fate Awards will bring together our largest turnout of celebrities and home grown talent to reward those who have made an outstanding contribution in each of the 17 award categories.”
Last year’s winners included Belfast hot spots Muriels, No 27 Talbot Street and Apartment, alongside regional winners Sallys in Omagh and The Plough in Hillsborough.
Award categories for the Fate Awards 2010 are: Best Classic Bar, Best Style Bar, Best Cocktail Bar, Best Gastro Pub, Best Front of House, Best Chef, Best Restaurant, Best Regional Bar, Best Regional Restaurant, Best Club, Best Regional Club, Best DJ, Best Gay Venue, Jim Aiken Live Venue, Colin Angus Best Media Personality, Best Hotel and Best Newcomer.
The Fate Awards in association with Diet Coke, star-studded Party of the Decade will be held on 26 March 2010 in Belfast’s Europa Hotel and is proudly supported by Peroni, BMI, Bacardi Brown-Forman, Tigi and UTV.
Volume Control FREE All Ages Event In association BBC Blast NI
After their most successful Volume Control gig yet, where 168 excited guests attended the event and donated £540 to the Belfast4Haiti appeal.
Volume Control are pleased to announce their next gig is held on Friday 19th March from 7pm until 9.30pm in association with BBC Blast who will be broadcasting the event live on the internet across the UK.
This is a FREE event and will feature some of Northern Ireland’s most promising new bands; The Good Fight, Scruff and Key of Atlas.
Volume Control is led by Belfast promoter, Ryan McCann – who recently celebrated his 16th birthday and has gathered a team of enthusiastic young people who ambitiously want to fill the gap and organise events for the teen market.
To get your FREE ticket please email volume-control@hotmail.co.uk and say “I heart VC, Friday 19th March tickets”. Limited Ticket Available
NB: There will be 1 ticket allocated per email address.
Event Details:
Volume Control in association with BBC Blast
All Ages Gig
featuring The Good Fight, Skruff and The Key Of Atlas
Oh Yeah Music Centre – 15-21 Gordon Street, Belfast, BT1 2LG
Friday 19th March, 7pm – 9.30pm
Admission is by ticket only event. Tickets are free please email volume-control@hotmail.co.uk and say “I heart VC, Friday 19th March tickets”
Strictly No Alcohol
Join our Social Networks;
www.bebo.com/volumecontro1
www.myspace.com/volumecontrolbelfast
http://www.facebook.com/#/pages/Volume-Control/328377045653?ref=ts
Editor Notes:
Volume Control is a monthly music event, organised and driven by young people. Volume Control is aimed at the 14-18 group and allows young performers and audience members to enjoy live, original music. Along the way, the Volume Control team will learn about promotions, marketing, media relations, poster design, stage production, event management and project financing. Based in the Oh Yeah music centre, this project equips a new generation with the skill sets to make their own mark on arts, business and music culture.
BBC Blast is the BBC’s network of creative teenagers. It provides access to mentors both online and in free events and workshops across the UK. With opportunities to showcase talent, enter competitions and get exclusive creative experiences such as work experience, it’s the place for teenagers to get creative. Although, the website specifically caters for 13 to 19 year olds, the BBC Blast project also runs a variety of work experience schemes for young adults between the ages of 18 to 25, who are just taking their first steps into the creative industries. Blast has been running since 2002. www.bbc.co.uk/blastni
The Good Fight an unsigned four piece band from Coleraine and Belfast. They were the ATL Rock School winners in 2008 and have recently celebrated the release of their debut single “Kick Start” on sale now. http://www.myspace.com/thegoodfightni
Skruff are a four piece from Derry who have supported The Enemy back in 2008 and have also played Glasgowbury. Since then they have released various singles including “This Is Not OK”. http://www.myspace.com/skruffderry
Key Of Atlas are an unsigned band from Belfast who have been together for almost two years. They have supported A Plastic Rose and they were the first band to perform live in the City Hall at their grand reopening
Go through the looking glass with Alice In Wonderland
Due for release in NI on the 5th March, Alice in Wonderland can be viewed in 3d or 2d. Check your local cinema for details.
Starring: Johnny Depp, Anne Hathaway, Helena Bonham Carter, Crispin Glover
West Coast Cooler Fashion Week
Lights, Camera, Catwalk!
FASHIONWEEK Welcomes a New Season With a New Shade… of Pink!
Belfast’s multi award-winning fashion event, West Coast Cooler FASHIONWEEK, is back with a show stopping schedule of runway shows and style events which will kick off on 09 March 2010 in the heart of the city at the old Northern Bank building in Waring Street.
Keeping in tune with the new pastel colour trends for the season, FASHIONWEEK is going pink. Audience members can expect fabulous pink runways, funky décor and of course the refreshing West Coast Cooler Rosé, which will add extra sparkle to the ever-so-stylish nightly catwalk shows and non-stop, cutting edge fashion, both on and off the catwalk.
This season’s retailer line up includes one of Northern Ireland’s largest independent multiples, Tempest/Menary’s, who will open the week, showcasing brands such as A Wear, Quiz, Oasis, Wonderbra and Warehouse, with other high street leaders including Lipsy, French Connection, Benetton, Argento jewellery and Marks & Spencer setting the style stakes on the high street evening. Debenhams, Miss Selfridge and Vero Moda will be among those showcasing at the CastleCourt event, while local designers such as Una Rodden, Grainne Maher and Lizzie Agnew will show both static exhibitions and runway collections. Designer boutiques Cruise, Jourdan, Blush, Harrison and Candy Plum from Hillsborough will also have collections on the catwalk. Newry-based hot-young-thing Katie McGuigan, whose CCKT label is making waves with fashion industry big wigs in New York and London, will also showcase; as will young Coleraine designer Bridgene Graham. Belfast Met students’ work will also shine in what is predicted to be a complete sell-out show. And sticking with the tradition of guest designers from abroad, BFW will this season offer a place to German-based designer Petra Tobias.
And as well as guest designers, the event also welcomes a guest model this season, in the form of Ireland’s only ever supermodel Kiera Gormley, who took part in the campaign photoshoot last week in between her busy schedule – which often includes shoots with top photographer Mario Testino for UK & Italian Vogue. Her career CV also includes campaigns for Burberry, Agent Provocateur and MAC Cosmetics as well as catwalk shows for Vivienne Westwood and couture shows for Jean Paul Gaultier and Armani Prive to name a few.
The hair partner for this season’s event is Michael Quinn, while make up artist to the stars Paddy McGurgan has partnered with GOSH! Cosmetics to create the fab make up looks for the shows and shoots.
Organiser Cathy Martin said: “We are so excited about this season as we move to the edgy location of the old bank and usher in the season’s hottest colour, pastel pink. We’re also welcoming back some retailers who have been with us season after season, as well as bringing on board some new collections and designers. And there will be other news closer to our show dates on master classes and style events with the industry’s top experts – both from here and abroad, so watch this space!”
Show tickets, which cost £10, are available from the Belfast Welcome Centre Box Office on 028 9024 6609 or online at www.gotobelfast.com . For further information on show schedules, tickets, links to participant retailers and designers as well as the season’s hottest trends, log on to www.belfastfashionweek.com.
Actor Dan Gordon set to judge North West students
The North West Schools Drama Festival, which is being organised by the Strabane Drama Festival Committee and will be held at the Alley Theatre in Strabane, is delighted to annouce this groundbreaking festival will have a special celebrity guest judge for the two evenings, actor and TV star, Dan Gordon. Currently directing a play with the world famous Belfast Lyric Theatre and star of the hit BBC Show “Give My Head Peace”, Dan Gordon stated he “was delighted to be involved in this fantastic grass roots festival, which will tap into the acting talent the North West has to offer”. The festival is being funded by the Good Relations Section of Strabane District Council, and is supported by the office of the First Minstster and Deputy First Minister.
Dan is excited with the prospect of developing the North West Schools Drama Festival, which will see High Schools and Colleges from across the district compete to be festival drama champions. “I think this is a great idea for the North West, not only will it help students learn more about acting, but as time progresses it will offer a stepping stone for even bigger things” commented Dan. “When I was younger and competing in school drama festivals I worked alongside guys like Dermot Murnaghan, who through working on stage developed his skills and confidence to move into television and journalism. Wallace McDole was another contemporary who found school festivals essential in developing his skills, he went onto work at the Lyric as a production manager. I know several others who went onto acting, directing, technical or dance roles in Ireland and across the UK, simply down to how inspired they became through the schools drama festival scene.”
As students take to the Alley stage, Dan admits to being jealous of the resources now on offer to students, “when we competed it was all about getting changed in cold classroom, no proper dressing rooms and the stage lights were often a bit unreliable to say the least. Now pupils can benefit from superb venues like the Alley Theatre in Strabane, backed up with great lighting and sound, a relaxing theatre space for the audience, proper dressing rooms and even a box office to help sell the tickets…. we had to make do with raffle ticket stubs.”
Dan will be the adjudicator for the 2 day schools drama festival and hopes he will have the chance to pass on some of his skills and thoughts to the students over that period. “If I could meet a young Dan Gordon just about to start out I would advise him that acting is all about listening, watching and reacting. Feed of the energy from the other actors and the audience. Watch as many actors as possible….and steal the best ideas!”
Ciaira McCay from the Strabane Drama Festival Committee stated “We are delgihted that Dan Gordon has agreed to be the festival adjudicator; he has a strong history in supporting grass roots acting and is a product of the drama festival scene himself. We have performances lined up from pupils including Holy Cross College in Strabane, Dromore’s St Johns High School, St Cecilia’s In Derry, Ballygawley’s St Ciarans and Thornhill College in Derry. The schools will be offering an exciting mix of work including pieces written by the students to Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible”.
Currently Dan is working on numerous projects, including directirng the forthcoming production of “The Miser” from the Lyric, which will be appearing at the Alley later in the summer. “I am really looking forward to this new festival and I urge everyone in the community to get behind these young actors who are making their first ever big production.” Tickets are now on sale for the North West Schools Drama Festival, only £4, £3 (con) or book online at www.alley-theatre.com
2010 Moving on Music Festival
The 2010 Moving on Music Festival is taking place in various venues in Belfast from 23rd-28th March and will feature a wide range of acts that span everything from folk to funk to free jazz!
Some of the highlights of this year’s festival include acclaimed Geordie folk act, The Unthanks, Scottish post-electro band Errors (Black Box, Friday 26th March, with support from local lads Kowalski), a live dub show featuring legendary producer Adrian Sherwood and MC Brother Culture (who provided vocals on the Thunder track on Prodigy’s 2009 album, Invaders Must Die) and Buttons, Barrels and Bows – an evening of traditional Irish music from a trio of outstanding musicians (Caoimhin O’Raghallaigh, Catherine McEvoy and Micheal O’Raghallaigh).
Some of the best local talent will also be showcased during the festival, as Bangor double-bassist/composer Dave Kane peforms as part of the exciting jazz quintet Dave Kane’s Rabbit Project, upcoming Armagh-born jazz drummer David Lyttle will appear with his group and special guest – American trumpet player, Terell Stafford, while local pianist/composer Simon Mawhinney will perform a free concert of twentieth-century and contemporary music, in association with Queen’s University, Belfast.
The festival will also encompass 2 exciting events in association with The MAC (Northern Ireland’s world-class home for the arts, due to open in 2011)…a whistle-stop piano-a-thon featuring acclaimed pianist Matthew Bourne and a seminar entitled Collective Thinking that will focus on the value of setting up music collectives.
To view a full copy of the programme go to http://www.movingonmusic.co.uk/
FOLK 4 HAITI
OVER 15 ACTS – THE EMPIRE MUSIC HALL, BELFAST
28th FEBRUARY 2010, 2pm-12am – £10.00
BELFAST 4 HAITI announces ‘Folk 4 Haiti’, a spectacular day of folk and traditional Irish Music in the Empire Music Hall Belfast, 28th February from 2pm- 12am. Tickets are priced at £10.00 and can be purchased on the door. All proceeds will go to the Haiti Earthquake Fund of the Disasters Emergency Committee.
Haiti’s strongest earthquake in more than two centuries devastated the Caribbean nation on Tuesday, 12th January 2010. Belfast 4 Haiti has raised over £41,000 so far and with continued effort more can be raised to aid the people of Haiti. Folk 4 Haiti brings folk and traditional musicians from Belfast and beyond for an amazing day long concert.
Live Acts include:
Anne, Ben and Colm Sands
Gerry O’Connor and Cathal McConnell
Alan Burke
Barry Kerr
The Rapparees
The Pigeon Top
Caoimhín Mac Giolla Catháin (Bréag)
Craobh Rua
Alalé
Conor Caldwell and Kevin Mc Cullagh
Casadh
Crúb agus Béal
Clanú
An Modh Díreach
Conor O’Kane
Breandán O’Hare, Ruadhraí O’Kane and co
Please be advised this event is being run to benefit the DEC – Disasters Emergency Committee.
At times of overseas emergency, the DEC brings together a unique alliance of the aid, corporate, public and broadcasting sectors to rally the nation’s compassion, and ensure that funds raised go to DEC agencies best placed to deliver effective and timely relief to people most in need. The DEC’s remit is to unite agency efforts in times of disaster – such as flood, earthquake or famine – wherever it happens in the world. The way we at DEC approach our work is to maximise funds raised and ensure they are spent in an effective and fully accountable way.
http://www.dec.org.uk/who_we_are/
Charity No: 1062638
DEC HAITI EARTHQUAKE,
PO BOX 999,
LONDON,
EC3A 3AA.
Venue: The Empire Music Hall, Botanic Avenue, Belfast
Date: Sunday 28th February
Ticket Price. £10 on the door
Doors: 2pm
You can also donate directly to the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC) via our Just Giving Page at this address:
http://www.justgiving.com/belfast4haiti
For further information please contact Méabh/Dee on
Up to the minute details on Facebook: http://bit.ly/folk4haiti
and Twitter: http://twitter.com/folk4haiti