Looking at the hash made of Belfast’s bid for European City of Culture, onlookers could be forgiven for thinking that this is not a town renowned for decent piss-ups in its breweries. But while the civic self-flagellation up here continues on apace (except, it is noticeable, amongst those actually responsible for the intellectual car-wreck of a campaign – they seem happy enough to blame the scamps that bricked the judging panel), it’s worth pointing out that there are many examples of intriguing, provocative, and enjoyable events running in Belfast despite the apathy.

A shining example is BelFest (and its sister, springtime event Digital T) – an annual, bite-sized In The City that for half a decade now has provided a showcase for many of the acts who live and work in the town.

Main organiser Gerard Sheppard has watched the event mushroom over the past five years. He runs a vital, regular music festival founded on local talent. Surely the Imagine Belfast team called him in for a chat?

“Not at all,” he says. “A few of us were talking about it over a pint last week. I run two events a year that are always in the calendar. They may not be the biggest, monster-sized events, but they are events that involve people from Belfast, where a lot of interesting things happen musically. But there was nothing. Absolutely fucking nothing. It ran for a year and I didn’t get one phonecall. Someone told me that I should contact them, but, by that point, I saw where the drift of their bid was going, and it was just frightening – all that fucking shite about building flowerbeds where the peacelines should be. What a load of inward-looking old bollocks. I was stunned, absolutely stunned when I heard what they were peddling.”

Maybe he shouldn’t have been. After all, despite now being an established, vital and eagerly anticipated occasion for all those involved in the North’s music scene, BelFest faces an ongoing battle to ensuring durable financial support. How hard is it to keep BelFest going?

“Pretty hard. It’s the lack of long-term commitment on behalf of other parties. It’s great having media partners like Radio Ulster – they’re there every year. PRS are there every year. But I can remember approaching the City Council once and being told that there wasn’t any chance of any funding, but we were more than welcome to use the Ulster Hall. And I thought: you’re kind of missing the point here. As for approaching the Arts Council – forget about it. They just chase us. And while LEDU were happy to help us for a while, they were also keen to keep us at arms length for as long as they could. Those wee bits of extra funding just make it a lot easier to stick someone on a telephone for a month to say to people: we’ve got something interesting here. Why don’t you come over?”

According to Gerard, it would be a worthwhile trip. Since the festival first began, it’s seen a year-on-year improvement, to such an extent that the annual set of showcase gigs often provide some of the top highlights of the live year.

“There’s a lot of whinging about how poor the live scene is in Belfast. But that’s not true, it’s not poor at all. I was talking to someone at PRS recently and they told me that Belfast had one of the most vibrant music scenes in the UK. There’s lots of things that go on that are crap, but if you work hard and you’re good at what you do then there’s nothing really to hold you back. I’ve been working with local music for ten years now and I have to say the last two years have been the best yet. The buzz during the last two BelFests has been amazing.”

Imagine that.

Local Motions

On a related BelFestian note – if you want to be included on next years Digital T CD, get your skates on as submissions are already being considered. The event will run in March 2003.
The Gig Collective have arranged a Belfast stop-off for the Antifolk mob as they press on with their 2002 European Tour. Dawson and Toby Goodshank of Moldy Peaches will be joined by Dufus, Major Matt Mason and Jeffrey Lewis for a special early evening show at Auntie Annies on Saturday November 23. Tickets cost £5, but make sure to get down early as doors open at 6.30pm