Music and faith-based debates in all four corners of the city

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.

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.

The idea is to draw people out of their own ‘corners’ of the city and into new places where they will encounter new perspectives, new ideas and hopefully meet new friends.

Co-founder, Father Martin Magill said:“I see the 4 Corners Festival as making a contribution towards peace building. The 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 relationships.

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.

“It is those moments where people come to a part of the city they’ve been in before and they meet somebody across whatever the divides are,” he explained.

“Of course, we have the traditional Catholic/Protestant divide and that’s one of our major divides in Belfast, but there are other races in Belfast now too so there are all those kinds of divides, including class divides.”

This year’s busy programme includes wil a photography exhibition and discussion of homelessness in the city, women in peace building, visions of Belfast, and will conclude with the theme of ‘the city where dreams become reality’.

2023 marks a number of significant anniversaries: 25 years since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and 60 years since Martin Luther King’s ‘I Had A Dream’ speech. The festival explores whether the dreams behind these historic events have been realised and if we still hold enough hope to dream big for Belfast.

Father Magill continued “My vision is of a city at peace with itself.”

A full programme will be released over the coming weeks, for more information go to www.4cornersfestival.com/the-festival.