{"id":20864,"date":"2023-01-04T15:39:45","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T14:39:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=20864"},"modified":"2023-01-04T15:39:45","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T14:39:45","slug":"4-corners-festival-dream-of-bringing-people-together","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2023\/01\/4-corners-festival-dream-of-bringing-people-together\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Corners Festival dream of bringing people together"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Dreams\u2026Visions for Belfast theme for annual celebration<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The annual 4 Corners Festival has announced its dates for 2023 and this year\u2019s theme which will be Dreams\u2026Visions for Belfast.<\/span><\/p>\n

The festival will feature a range of art, music, discussion, sport, debates and faith-based events from January 27 to February 5 in venues across the city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Now in its 11th year, the festival was conceived as a way to inspire people from across the city to transform it for the peace and wellbeing of all.<\/span><\/p>\n

It features innovative events designed to entice people out of their own \u2018corners\u2019 of the city and into new places where they will encounter new perspectives, new ideas and hopefully meet new friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

Co-founder, Father Martin Magill explained that while in the past there was a focus on peace-making, the festival was about the next step.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI see the 4 Corners Festival as making a contribution towards peace building,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea of people getting to know one another, spending time with one another, building relationships and I see the festival really as a catalyst to help encourage that building of relationships.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fellow co-founder, Reverend Steve Stockman said the traditional divides have changed much in recent years and that’s one of the things that keeps him involved.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is those moments where people come to a part of the city they\u2019ve been in before and they meet somebody across whatever the divides are,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, we have the traditional Catholic\/Protestant divide and that\u2019s one of our major divides in Belfast, but there are other races in Belfast now too so there are all those kinds of divides, but there\u2019s also class divides.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Included in this year\u2019s busy programme will be a photographic exhibition and discussion of homelessness in the city, women in peace building, visions of Belfast, and will conclude with the theme of \u2018the city where dreams become reality\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

2023 marks a number of significant anniversaries: 25 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and 60 years since Martin Luther King\u2019s \u2018I Had A Dream\u2019 speech. The 2023 festival explores whether the dreams behind these historic events have been realised and if we still hold enough hope to dream big for Belfast.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMartin Luther King Jr didn\u2019t have a complaint. He had a dream. Likewise, we want to ask, what are our dreams for our city, now?\u201d said Reverend Stockman, adding: \u201cOur hope is that as we hear the dreams of the homeless, young loyalists, women in leadership, sportsmen and musicians as well as church leaders that we be inspired to live out our dreams.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think just being asked what your dream is, what your vision is, is sometimes enough because I don\u2019t think we walk around enough saying \u2018what are our dreams for how we can change the city\u2019,\u201d he explained.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOnce you start thinking about it and what you\u2019d like to change or see differently, then perhaps it would provoke us and inspire us into imagining it and becoming part of the change itself.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Father Magill shares similar sentiments when it comes to his own vision for the city. He explained: \u201cMy vision is of a city at peace with itself. It is about tackling the issue of poverty and creating an integrated city where people can live in whatever part of the city they want to.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe festival\u2019s theme has got a message this year for our world because we\u2019re living in such a fragile, broken world at this moment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One of the many events of the upcoming festival will see 48 young people from four youth clubs become involved with social action and meeting one and other, as well as service providers from the police, ambulance, fire service and the council.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although faith is an important component of the 4 Corners Festival, Father Magill explained it is not exclusively for \u2018believers\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEvery one of us who are part of the planning committee are coming from places of faith, however, we welcome those who don\u2019t come from a place of faith,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“We\u2019re trying to be the gospel that some people don\u2019t actually get to read.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose in many ways we would see it as the living out of the gospel, the loving of your enemy, the making of peace, of loving one another, and we try to put into practice those words.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Reverend Stockman echoes the sentiment, saying, \u201cThere are events for everybody, not just for those who believe the same things that we believe. Each and every one of us living in Belfast have dreams for a better future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope 4 Corners will help people listen to each other\u2019s dreams, and keep working towards a more peaceful and just city.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A full programme will be released over the coming weeks, for more information go to <\/b>www.4cornersfestival.com\/the-festival<\/b><\/a>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dreams\u2026Visions for Belfast theme for annual celebration The annual 4 Corners Festival has announced its dates for 2023 and this year\u2019s theme which will be Dreams\u2026Visions for Belfast. The festival will feature a range of art, music, discussion, sport, debates and faith-based events from January 27 to February 5 in venues across the city.\u00a0 Now … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[1652,1651,388],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20864"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20864"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20864\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20866,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20864\/revisions\/20866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}