Cathedral Arts Festival programme unveiled

The festival returns to enliven Belfast and reach the parts other festivals can’t with over 150 events.

The dizzyingly eclectic music line-up this year brings a series of luminaries and legends to Belfast, including Lee “Scratch” Perry, who will be celebrating his eightieth birthday; Elbow frontman Guy Garvey; Marc Almond; and BBC Radio 2 Folk Award-winning husband-and-wife duo Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman.

The Festival’s artist in residence this year is the singularly talented Jealous of the Birds aka Naomi Hamilton, whose debut album alum Parma Violets is simply astonishing.

The CQAF comedy line-up also includes Rob Delaney, Tina C, John Shuttleworth, Richard Herring, and Robert Newman returns with The Brain Show, in which he takes a sceptical approach to some grand claims made by neuroscience.

The Salford Bard John Cooper Clarke also makes a very welcome return to headline the festival marquee.

There’s also a glorious abundance of visual art, film, literature, spoken word and theatre.