Culture Night Belfast returns for 2020 with an online offering

Following an announcement in May that there would be no return this year to having the city streets packed with performers and the public due to concerns around Covid 19, the team behind Culture Night Belfast is determined to show resilience in the sector, despite the trying times.

Susan Picken, Director of Cathedral Quarter Trust, the charity behind Culture Night Belfast, promised that the 2020 programme will see a spectacular online display with the launch of CNB TV.

“Although this year’s programme will not be happening live on Culture Night we will be broadcasting over six hours of core programming free across a number of channels online.

“As every year this year’s core programming will promote arts and culture, diversity, inclusivity and accessibility for all.

“CNB TV will broadcast cultural diversity across a range of art forms including music, film, visual arts and arts for young people.”

Susan said everyone involved is determined to show that they are ready to rise to the challenge.

“The arts sector has been really badly impacted by this pandemic, but I think on the whole it has shown how determined people are to keep going,” she explained.

“Resilience is a bit of the theme this year, almost like defiance when we are up against it.

“People have plugged away for years, and they’re not going to let something they’ve built be destroyed. People are creative and will always find a way to make things happen.”

With funding dramatically cut Susan says the backing of Belfast City Council and the Arts Council NI has been vital to make sure that they can take Culture Night on to the internet.

The full programme is set to be announced shortly, but it promises to be a packed series of events. Both the Oh Yeah Centre and the Black Box will be curating their own online events, Stephen Beggs is set to provide some children’s cabaret and the Graduate Show, delivered virtually by The Mac will once again provide a platform for students from Ulster University.

“One thing we realise is that we have the ability to help further support the arts by opening up the programme to other events which we will help promote and highlight through our social media, press activity, website listings and more,” Susan continued,

“Therefore, we’re calling on creators, artists, organisations and venues to submit something to be included in our supporting programme online.

“Of course the stipulation is that the event must have an online element to it. We’re happy to promote work that has already been created - so, for example, you may have a film available on YouTube or another platform that you wish to share with us. Or perhaps, you want to highlight some of the amazing work you did during lockdown.

“Regardless whether you are sharing a new piece of work, going live or sending us links to pre-recorded material we want to hear from you.”

Whilst it will be a massive shift this year, requiring a lot of effort, Susan is determined that the core principles will remain.

“To me Culture Night is about celebrating the city and celebrating creativity in the city,” she said.

“I love when you walk round the corner and there’s some weird performance or there’s something projected on a wall. It’s those types of things that I’d love to continue to bring forward to the future, but the online event will retain that at its core.”

With uncertainty remaining over when performances can return to venues and the streets of Belfast Susan hopes that they can deliver something in 2021.

“We’re still hoping to do something next September but it depends on a lot of things,” she continued.

“Ultimately I’d like it to be an event where the creativity all comes together and shows the city at its best.”

Artists can still apply to get involved to share their ideas.

“Although our core programme is now complete we’ll still be able to give other artists and creators a platform to promote their work in the run up and over the Culture Night weekend.

“We’ll be launching a call for submissions for our online listings and promotional activity in the coming week and we look forward to doing whatever we can to support the wider arts sector during this turbulent time.

“We want to use this as an opportunity for people to fundraise for arts and culture. Maybe people won’t be out buying pints but hopefully they’ll donate what they would have spent to Culture Night and the artists and creators entertaining them.”

If you’re a creator and want to submit your event to Culture Night Belfast this year simply fill out the submissions form at culturenightbelfast.com/cnb-online

For more information on the plans for Culture Night, go to culturenightbelfast.com.