Cave Hill Hike and Summit Dance to Fund Soultrane’s Free Culture Night

Belfast does community in its own way. Sometimes that means a night at the Oh Yeah. Sometimes it means boots on for Cave Hill until the city opens out beneath you — then putting music on and dancing anyway.

That is the plan for Sunday 6 September 2026: a fundraising hike with a summit dance, organised by the Soultrane community to bridge a last-minute cost gap on their free Culture Night Block Party.

Walkers meet at 11:30am from the Upper Hightown Road car park for a roughly 30-minute climb to the summit. Registration is £10, with sponsorship welcome on top — Soultrane says 100% goes to the cause, with a £2,000 fundraising goal. Hit the target and, as the flyer frames it, there might be a dance party at the summit.

The Block Party itself lands on Friday 18 September, 6–11pm, on the Oh Yeah Centre Yard Stage — free to walk into, which is exactly the point. Soultrane does not yet have regular core funding, and a free night means no ticket income to soak up unexpected production costs. The hill walk is how supporters decided to answer that.

Money raised will help cover Culture Night production kit — the equipment kids need to showcase their talent isn’t cheap — and, just as importantly, help young Studio 17 Dance Crew perform at Soultrane for the first time. Dance and soul have always belonged together; this fundraiser is about making sure those dancers get seen.

“We’re committed to keeping events like this visible and Culture Night is free for the community, but it doesn’t mean free to produce,” said Soultrane director and co-founder Siobhan Brown. “When this unexpected financial hurdle arose, our community stepped forward and said: let’s do something about it — and they came up with the idea of climbing Cave Hill and having a dance at the top.”

For Brown, Studio 17 is the heart of why it matters. “These brilliant young dancers are preparing to perform at Soultrane for the first time, and we want to make sure they get that opportunity,” she said. “I want those young dancers to step onto that stage on 18 September knowing the Soultrane community got behind them.”

Soultrane particularly credits Natalie Brennan, Cherie Magee and Rhiannon Johnston, whose push turned a “what if we climbed?” idea into a real walk with a GoFundMe and a date in the diary.

“Community isn’t one person and it isn’t defined by where you live,” Brown added. “It’s people bringing their ideas, giving their time and deciding that something is worth supporting.”

Culture Night Belfast 2026 is already mapped out citywide on Friday 18 September, and Soultrane’s Block Party sits in that same free-to-explore spirit. See our full briefing: Culture Night Belfast 2026. For the wider month: What’s on in Belfast this September.

Need to know

What: Cave Hill fundraising hike + summit dance
When: Sunday 6 September 2026, 11:30am
Meet: Upper Hightown Road car park
Fee: £10 registration (sponsorship encouraged) — 100% to the cause
Goal: £2,000 for Soultrane / Culture Night equipment for kids performing; summit dance party if target hit
Supports: Soultrane free Culture Night Block Party — Oh Yeah Centre Yard Stage, Friday 18 September, 6–11pm
Why it matters: No core funding; free event = cost gap; Studio 17 Dance Crew’s first Soultrane stage
Donate / join: GoFundMe — Cave Hill dance party fundraising hike
More: soultranefestival.com

Climb if you can. Donate if you can. Share if you can’t. Then turn up on 18 September and make some noise for Studio 17 — that is the whole idea.