What's On in Belfast

EVERYWHERE AT ONCE: Belfast City Blues Festival - The Ronnie Greer Big Band — Kick off your Sunday the right way as the Belfast City Blues Festival rolls into The Black Box at 12:30pm with the Ronnie Greer Big Band bringing that rich, full-throated big band blues sound to one of the city's most characterful venues. This is the kind of afternoon set that turns a quiet Sunday into a proper occasion — warm, swinging, and utterly transportive. Check the website for ticket prices and secure your spot before the word gets out.

The Mark Braidner Blues Band // Laura Henderson & Gareth Hughes — Moored right there on the water, The Belfast Barge is one of those venues that feels like a secret even when it's packed, and at 12:30pm it hosts a double helping of blues with the Mark Braidner Blues Band and the acoustic intimacy of Laura Henderson and Gareth Hughes. At just £12, this is an afternoon well spent with your feet tapping and the Lagan glittering outside. A perfect companion event to the wider Blues Festival energy rippling across the city today.

The Cure — This is the one. Robert Smith and The Cure descend on Ormeau Park at 6:00pm in what promises to be one of the great Belfast concert moments of the decade — a band whose catalogue stretches from post-punk darkness to swooning pop anthems, all of it sounding as vital and strange as it ever did. Whether you have been a devotee since Disintegration or you are coming fresh to the lipstick and the raincoats, an open-air evening with The Cure is the stuff of genuine memory. Tickets from £12 — check the website for full availability.

Karl Devlin // Chris Chalmers // Lonesome Pete — Once the Ormeau Park crowds begin to drift home, the night still has places to go — and The Belfast Barge delivers a late-evening triple bill at 7:30pm that feels like stumbling into something genuinely special. Karl Devlin, Chris Chalmers, and Lonesome Pete bring songwriter craft and a relaxed Sunday-night spirit to one of the city's most beloved intimate venues, all for just £10. This is the kind of gig where you arrive not knowing the names and leave with new favourites.

Phantoms of the Popera — If the lure of the Grand Opera House on a Sunday evening needs any extra encouragement, the gloriously titled Phantoms of the Popera should seal the deal — a show that takes the grandeur of opera and wraps it in a pop sensibility that is impossible not to love, performed in one of Belfast's most magnificent theatrical spaces. Curtain up at 7:30pm, and whether you are a seasoned opera-goer or simply someone who enjoys a spectacular night out, this promises warmth, wit, and serious vocal fireworks. Check the website for ticket details.