From humble beginnings in 1998, Belfast Children’s Festival has grown to become one of the largest and most respected dedicated arts festivals for children and young people in the UK and on the island of Ireland.
We’ve taken a slightly different approach to our 2024/25 Annual Report, paring it right back to a few short pages featuring highlights from the Festival, our Education and Engagement Programme and our Professional Development and Service Delivery activity. Still great results-just in an ‘at a glance’ format!
Here are just some of the highlights.
- Over the festival’s ten days, 6-15 March 2025, we welcomed over 27,000 visitors to 143 events across the city of Belfast, with a further 341,000 joining the festivities by tuning into live radio broadcasts from the festival.
- The festival programme featured a new perspective on the heartwarming, The Velveteen Rabbit, a CBeeBies and Ulster Orchestra collaboration to reimagine classic children’s stories, the ‘smashing’ Der Lauf from Belgium with its madcap hilarity and the beautiful and thought provoking ‘Sandscape’ from Nigeria.
- Our Education & Engagement Programme delivered a diverse and varied range of projects to 1700 nursery, primary and secondary school children and supported community groups to attend festival performances and experience the magic of live performance. Our programme helped children and young people to reflect on and respond to the changing world around them, helping to develop their creativity, confidence, imagination, critical thinking, problem-solving skills, while supporting their mental health and wellbeing.
- Our free ‘Festival Family Day Out’ welcomed almost 8,000 children and their grown ups into Belfast to enjoy workshops and performances.
- We were delighted to partner with local organisations including CQ BID, Victoria Square and Translink and welcomed several businesses to enjoy ‘all the fun of the Festival’ at a special business breakfast held at The Crescent Arts Centre.
- Throughout the year, we delivered bespoke events for Belfast City Council and Grand Opera House and completed year three of The YAA Collective, our creative engagement programme for 7-11 year olds with our largest group yet!
We’re now focused on delivering BCF26, 5-14 March and due to launch our programme in January.
To find out more about how to get involved with the Festival or opportunities to collaborate, contact [email protected]
