Culture Night To 'Serve Up Magical Feast'

Culture Vultures, family fun lovers and thrill seekers from far and wide can get their first glimpse of plans for Belfast's Third Culture Night with the unveiling of a new website.

The countdown to Culture Night Belfast 2011 has officially gone live and online with less than two months until Friday 23 September and another beguiling evening of gigs, choirs, dance, poetry, exhibitions, theatre, street performers, taster tours, workshops plus a carnival parade to introduce the newly elected 'Mayor of the Cathedral Quarter'.

Organisers are planning to design a bespoke, interactive evening of entertainment, fun, discovery and adventure for everyone throughout the city's historic Cathedral Quarter and beyond in their bid to make Culture Night 2011 the most memorable yet.

Organisations of all kinds, from churches to galleries and pubs to libraries are set to take part alongside artists and performers of all stripes in an ever-expanding line-up of events.

People can keep abreast of developments as they unfold and also get involved themselves by going to the new Culture Night Belfast website www.culturenightbelfast.com and its linked Facebook page.

Culture Night Belfast Director Adam Turkington said: "Culture Night is all about people. People coming out, participating, having fun and helping to shape the evening in all manner of ways. You can get involved right now by proposing an event, sharing your opinion on how we can improve on Culture Night or generally having a say.

"We hope that our website and social networking sites will encourage anybody interested to find out more and interact with us in the spirit of collaboration. News and views will unfold as the countdown continues and the line up grows and we hope that the public gets right behind what we hope will be an evening of pure cultural and civic celebration for all."

Last year over 100 events brought 15,000 people into the city centre of Belfast for the evening of Culture Night.

Culture Night Belfast 2011 will run in tandem with 27 other similar events across Ireland on the evening of 23 September, making it part of a genuinely island-wide phenomenon.

Rumours that this year's run-up to Culture Night will feature an electoral campaign to elect an inaugural mayor of the Cathedral Quarter have now been confirmed by organisers.

Adam Turkington continued: "Watch this space. Our website's live and our Facebook page is constantly updated. People signing up for those will get the full heads-up with any developments in these forthcoming elections. I can't reveal too much yet about candidates but forget what you've heard already.

"I can say that we'll have a few big hitters and maybe a surprise entrant throwing their campaign hats into the electoral ring. The idea is to have a bit of fun with an election to select a mayor to represent the Cathedral Quarter - we feel the unofficial cultural capital of Belfast deserves an unofficial mayor. People will be able to vote online for their preferred candidate and we hope the process, if not the candidates, will raise a few serious points along the way.

"We can assure local politicians that any resemblance to a council democratic process is purely coincidental and offer our apologies in advance to the real mayor of Belfast."

Candidates will be revealed at a press conference to be held shortly, followed by a mayoral debate in the run up to the final election count.

The new 'Mayor of Cathedral Quarter' will then be declared by the Lord Mayor of Belfast at the official launch of Culture Night Belfast on 1 September. The first duty will be to lead the celebrations at Culture Night itself with an open-top cavalcade.

(GK/BMcC)