The 2014 Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s, Ireland’s leading international contemporary arts Festival has announced two new sponsors for key music strands of this year’s programme.
Leading telecoms provider O2 International Sim and Belfast Harbour have added their support as sponsors of the Music Club and the Classical Music elements respectively – both of which will showcase a diverse spectrum of the world’s leading musical talent in venues across the city from 16th October- 1st November as part of this year’s Festival.
Richard Wakely, Director, Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s, commented “For 17 days the city of Belfast will be buzzing to the beat of music from all over the world and this would not be possible without the support of our sponsors and public sector funders. We are delighted to be welcoming two new sponsors, O2 International Sim and Belfast Harbour and look forward to working closely with them over the coming months and alongside our Title Sponsor, Ulster Bank, Principal Funder, Arts Council for Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Tourist Board, Queen’s University, Belfast City Council, British Council, Arts & Business NI and Department for Social Development – as together we celebrate the positive and transforming role of the arts to our city.”
Belfast Harbour will align their sponsorship to the classical programming of the festival, which features a range of high quality performances from award-winning acts from Sweden, Switzerland, UK and Ireland, which will be revealed on the Festival’s 4th September launch. Highlight events which are currently on sale include three performances from our very own Ulster Orchestra featuring visiting artists of international repute, including a thrilling opening concert of ‘Four Distinct Moods in Music’ with outstanding young Ukrainian violinist Valeriy Sokolov, an evening of ‘Classics Though The Ages’ with works by Haydn, Brahms, Strauss and Stravinsky and ‘Fanfare to Fate’ which celebrates the work of local composer Simon Mawhinney alongside those pf Beethoven andTchaikovsky and featuring world-renowned pianist Barry Douglas
On launching the partnership, Roy Adair, Chief Executive, Belfast Harbour said: “Belfast Harbour is strongly committed to the people and communities we reach and believe that engaging with arts will help build a sustainable society. Facilitating access to the arts is a key dimension of our community engagement strategy and we are delighted to form this partnership with the Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s. The Festival is a major highlight of the local arts calendar and we look forward to seeing the international talent showcased during the classical music programme.”
The Festival’s Music Club returns for 2014 and is presented in association with O2 International Sim. Sponsorship of the festival and Music Club in particular, offers O2 the potential to reach a high number of festival goers, of which there were 45,000 in 2013, to promote their latest offers including the O2 international sim brand incorporating an international sim card for calls between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The Music Club features a number of unmissable Irish and Northern Ireland premieres from soul, folk and blues legends, all to be revealed at the Festival’s launch on 4th September.
“O2 International Sim is really excited to be partnering with the Music Club and the wider festivities of the Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s. As a brand, it has a strong legacy of supporting the arts, especially live music so the opportunity to work with the Festival was too good to miss. O2 International Sim can bring great benefits to festival goers and the the people of Northern Ireland, they can call Ireland from just 1p. They only have to top up €15 to enjoy free O2 to O2 calls, as well as 100mb of data. O2 International Sim is looking forward to interacting with the Irish community and the famous Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s atmosphere to promote its great calling rates, data top up offers and coverage it has to Ireland and the rest of the World.”
The Ulster Bank Belfast Festival at Queen’s presents great and diverse works of art from home and abroad and brings audiences something very special that they cannot see elsewhere all combining to deliver one unique festival which runs throughout the city from 16 October – 1 November. The 2014 festival features performers from 18 different countries covering classical and contemporary music, film, dance, theatre, talks and visual arts, many of which are EU, UK and Ireland premieres. First shows are now on sale with further booking information to be announced in the coming weeks. For more information, Check-in to www.belfastfestival.com