Wake up to Song and Dance in Belfast

When your in Belfast and its evening time, get yourself to Maddens, which is a dimly lit pub located on the second floor of a cathedral quarter of Belfast.  Over here there are about six musicians and a young woman who plays a fiddle. A tin whistler, a few guitarists and a uillean pipe; all sit in a circle and conjure up some groovy numbers. The music has a good feel to it.

A lot of people here come quite regularly on the Friday nights to enjoy the rich cultural Irish Music. . After ten years of signing the Northern Ireland peace agreement, Belfast is in the middle of a large transformation. A lot of investment and improvisation techniques have made this into one of the liveliest towns in the entire regions.

Every neighborhood now has new hotels, pubs and restaurants.  There is a new riverside promenade that is just after the commercial and residential complex and is all part of a giant entertainment complex for later.

Titanic Quarter is a massive luxury liner which is both beautiful and elegant. This liner was built in the early nineteen hundreds.  Belfast used to be one of the most music oriented cities in the region. In fact, Van Morrison started his career right here, singing his tunes at the maritime hotel.  Later Joe Cocker went on to become the lead guitarist for Paul McCartney’s Wings.

The city of Belfast has about forty clubs. A lot of Irish musicians have their roots from these clubs. The folk’s songs have been the main attraction of Irish music culture for many centuries now. Some songs that are played here at Belfast date back almost one thousand years old. . These songs have then been passed on from one generation to the other.  Apparently, from two centuries ago, people have just started writing songs, before this it was just passed on from one mouth to the next!

At weddings and saints day, u can hear people play the reels, hornpipe and jigs along with the fiddle and uillean pipe. There is an annual Flead Cheoil Na Eireann  festival  which is the largest and most impressive display of traditional music  in the whole world. The dance competition begins in villages and it also performed at the country level. There are as many as twenty thousand people who participate in these competitions.

Check back here for more information on  the fun things to do in Belfast.