Sailortown Festival Belfast 9th-11 June

By Love Belfast

June 2, 2023

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Sailortown is coming back to life. Situated on Belfast’s Maritime Mile along the Lagan Waterfront, it hosted 3 days of fantastic gigs and activities for its 150^th anniversary last year.

This year, Sailortown will lay on another 3 days of music, street activities and celebration of its local heritage. Friday night will tell the story of the residents fight to save their Church. Saturday will celebrate our local artistes with dancing in the streets and family friendly events. Groove down on in Sailortown on Saturday night as generations used to in the iconic Rotterdam Bar. Afternoon sessions include Strig Ninjas and Belfast Busking Band while Taylor Lally and The Groove Collective will perform at St Joseph’s Church, will close The Saturday night entertainment in St Joseph’s Church.

Stunning musical performances on Sunday with a recreation of past traditions of Boxing and the Pets Blessing, supported by the pet friendly American Bar, who will give all the pets a special gift.

Music on the Maritime Mile will take place in the afternoon, featuring a free ‘In the Round’ gig with Aoife Scott, Matt McGinn and Wilfie, culminating in the fantastic Motown Sensations on Sunday night.

St Joseph’s, the ‘Chapel on the Quay’, is a listed building which was the focal point for the Sailortown community for generations until this proud inner-city area was bulldozed to make way for the M2 in the 1960s.

Many people will remember the protest launched to keep Joseph’s for the community when it was closed in 2001.

After a long campaign, the keys were handed over to the community, and now its future is secured.

Now the Sailortown Regeneration Group have reopened St Joseph’s and are working on securing a long term future to revitalise this inner city community. This festival is thanks to the following funders: