The Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas & Politics
The Imagine! Belfast Festival of Ideas & Politics, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Mission and aims
The mission of the festival is to provide high-quality showcases for the discussion of contemporary political and societal issues including new ideas on politics, culture and activism.
To organise an inspiring annual programme of performance, discussion and debate.
To encourage the participation of under-represented groups in political/cultural debate and discussion.
To stimulate reflection and discussion on difficult and controversial issues.
To promote free speech, good relations, cultural diversity and equality.
Five things about Imagine!
We are an independent, non-profit registered charity (NIC 101004) with minimal administrative costs and no offices.
We are not aligned with any political party or group and are strictly non-partisan.
Our goal is to encourage participation from people not normally involved in political debate and to stimulate discussions on new ideas about culture and activism.
Now in its tenth year, the festival is organising over 130 events and several special projects during March 18-24, 2024.
Supported by more than 50 partner organisations, the diverse seven-day festival offers an eclectic mix of talks, workshops, theatre, poetry, comedy, music, film, and performances.
Organisational structure and programme
The festival takes place every March in Belfast and involves a week-long series of events aimed at engaging people in political and cultural discussions and debates in the broadest sense. The festival seeks to cover a wide spectrum of issues, including but not limited to mainstream political debates.
The inaugural event was held in March 2015. The majority of the events in our festival are proposed through a public call for proposals conducted every October. Last year, the festival organisers received 90 event proposals from groups and members of the public. The festival organisers are not aligned with any political party or particular interest group. The festival doesn't receive corporate funding; instead, we are supported by our partners and individual donations.
Participation in the festival is open to all, and while the main debates will not be party-political, groups and individuals are encouraged to discuss those 'difficult' and contentious issues that often don't come up in public discussions. The founder and current festival director is Peter O’Neill.
Summary of 2023 festival
The 9th Imagine! Belfast Festival proved to be a very successful project involving 141 events and 257 speakers & performers during 20-26 March 2023.
The eclectic week of talks, workshops, theatre, poetry, comedy, music, exhibitions, film and tours attracted a record audience of 37,397 online and in-person attendees. The festival explored the theme ‘Brain Food: A Feast of Ideas for A Better World’ with an attractive range of food related events and visual assets.
Most of the events (54%) were free as the festival rolled out a huge programme including headliners such as the world-renowned intellectual Noam Chomsky; American political scientist Francis Fukuyama; British environmentalist Jonathon Porritt; author and transgender activist, Shon Faye; campaigner George Monbiot; visual artist Colin Davidson; journalist Sally Hayden and satirist Oliver Callan and a host of other exciting arts, heritage and cultural events with many sold out or oversubscribed.
Musicians included the legendary performer, John Otway; alternative punks, Wood Burning Savages; the acclaimed Australian song writer, Robert Forster; and a special politics and poetry event with leading politicians taking to the stage. Comedy was well represented with Tiff Stevenson and Fin Taylor alongside poets such as Henry Normal and Medbh McGuckian and cabaret performer, Paddy Cullivan.
The unique festival also examined the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and the run up to the local government elections with the premiere of ‘Agreement’ a new play by Owen McCafferty at the Lyric Theatre. A special ‘Democracy Day’ strand on 24 March focussed on citizen activism and the role of local changemakers. We also commissioned a large scale public participation project examining the ‘Forgotten Spaces’ in the city and Stephen Beggs, as our artist in residence, to deliver a humorous provocation encouraging voter registration.
Other events discussed touchstone issues such as how to stop violence against women; climate change; the prospect of a united Ireland; Scottish Independence; regeneration initiatives and poverty themes. Leading commentators such Professor Linda Bauld considered how to prepare for the next pandemic and Professor Jon Tonge discussed why we have so much political instability in Northern Ireland. In addition, we even had a quiz and a special poetry and politics pub crawl to whet the creative appetites!
We conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the festival through an audience survey involving 401 returns (1% sample). Our survey found that 99% of respondents felt the festival satisfied their expectations. It was particularly pleasing to find that 57% of audience members were attending a festival event for the first time and 48% of the sample had never been to the festival venue before, which confirms that we were able to reach new audiences and introduce them to new venues and partners. We also asked whether respondents considered themselves to be disadvantaged and found that 34% of the sample considered themselves to fall into this category which suggests were able to significantly engage with vulnerable and less well-off sections of the community.
We also found that 23% of our sample were visiting Belfast and Northern Ireland with 8% stating they lived in Ireland, 4% came from GB, 5% from rest of Europe and 2% from rest of world. For these out of state visitors, 21% said that attending the festival was the main reason for their visit to Belfast.
Our unique selling point, as a civic participation festival in Belfast, was recognised in media coverage and our speakers and performers appreciated the platform we were able to provide for them. We are looking forward to celebrating our 10th anniversary during 25-31 March 2024 and hope to welcome you to our special programme.
Further information is available on this link.