Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival

I had the pleasure of getting along to three events at his year's CQAF festival. The Cathedral Quarter festival has always had a habit of bringing over emerging and established artists and offering a very broad range of events, concerts and exhibitions. The Festival of Fools seemed to have become incorporated into CQAF in some shape or form, and it's regrettable to hear that this particular piece of street performance has had it's funding axed. The Festival of Fools is multi-cultural, cross-community. family-friendly and attracts really respectable crowds, many of whom are tourists. I think it is a little gem in the crown of Belfast's city centre. In the same week, our minister for finacne decided he was going to spend £10,000 on erecting five union flags over government buildings, a divisive and pointless act if ever there was one. I did suggest to anyone who would listen that he could use that £10,000 to fund the Festival of Fools which appears to already have been named in his honour.

Anyway, here's a selection of shots from the Festival of Fools, the Fawlty Towers Dining Experience, Amadou and Mariam and Mary Gauthier/Ben Glover.

Mary Gauthier and Ben Glover, St George's Church

Festival of Fools

Amadou and Mariam

The Fawlty Towers Dinner Experience

2013 365-18

Week eighteen ahoy.

29/04/13

I don't spend a lot of time taking photos like this and certainly don't post them on this blog. But this.....this is magnificent. And that's all I'm saying about it.

30/04/13

My greenhouse. It has featured here before but I spent most of today getting it weeded and cleaned, ready for a new growing season which I hope is better than last year's. Tomatoes, peppers, chillies and some other things growing away on the window sills inside at the moment, ready for transplanting to the greenhouse in a couple of weeks.

1/05/13

Taken some time ago, but embargo removed today. Technically I'm not 100% happy with this shot, but it turned out reasonably well. Orders are being taken as we speak for prints at very reasonable prices.

2/05/13

Another day, another monument although today I managed to find and photograph four of these. This one is unmarked and consists of a plastic ball of flowers and a t-shirt tied to the crash barrier on the A55 outer ring in Belfast.

3/05/13

 First day of the Festival of Fools today and this lady provided my first spot of audience participation for the weekend. This is Mooky Cornish who made me dress in a wig and frilly dress and sing and dance. The only consolation was that she also caught my 10-year old daughter as well. She did look better in the wig and dress combo.

4/05/13

And this fine gentleman is Grant Goldie, a fine juggler but even better with the diablo. I've seen pretty much all the juggling tricks there are to see, but this guy had diablo tricks that I had never seen, much less even thought possible. Breath-taking stuff.

5/05/13

These are the Chipolattas, whose speciality seemed to be musical theatre and barbequeing each other's testicles. As always, the Festival of Fools provides great entertainment, world class street performers and a great atmosphere. It's really sad to hear that the funding for the Festival has been cut by our local penny-pinching bureaucrats and this made me toss a few extra quid into the hats which were passed round after each act. It's surprising that we can't see fit to fund something that is genuinely cross community, family oriented, a draw for tourists and a mecca for local photographers. It's even more surprising to discover today that our finance minister Sammy Wilson has seen fit to spend £10,000 on erecting five flag poles so the union jack can be flown over some more buildings for designated days each year. Come on Sammy - sod the flags and fund the Festival of Fools. They've already named it after you.

367-50 Week 25

This should be an interesting week. Delivering the training on dull psychometrics this week as well as (in one's role as el presidente) MC'ing the City of Belfast Photographic Society annual exhibition. The weekend brings the Festival of Fools in Belfast City Centre and there's talk of a potential photoshoot with the Belfast Roller Derby ladies on Sunday morning.

30/04/12

This is my big son Conor in the back of my car, shot with a 10-24 zoom at it's widest. It makes for an interesting shot. It also makes my car look like a bloody limo rather than the small sporty convertible it actually is.

1/05/12

I discovered this religious comic sitting on a table in a school staff room today. It tells the story of the amazing Mr Harper who was apparently on the Titanic. It's pretty turgid stuff and comes complete with a range of incredible puzzles. However, what caught my eye was Mr Harper's declaration to his daughter. What exactly was the good news he was giving out about Jesus? I suspect it was either that Jesus wasn't on the Titanic or that if he was, he could walk home when the boat sank. I apologise to any of my readers who are religious, but I find this type of thing moderately disturbing. And vaguely amusing.

2/05/12

After all of last week's complaining, I got to deliver my training on psychometrics to a small group of SENCO's this afternoon in the Antrim Board Centre. Nice bunch of people, and not one of them fell asleep. The old joke about the Rorschach Inkblots went down well. Everyone went home armed with a big box of test gear. Good help those children.

3/05/12

This is Milly - living proof that when one door closes, another one opens. Or as my grandmother used to say, when one door closes, another slams in your face.

4/05/12

The Festival of Fools opened in Belfast with two big shows yesterday and today in St Anne's Square. Apart from being good craic, there's millions of photo opportunities to be had for the keen togger. This the lady who was conducting the band and singing for the show tonight. Shot with the big beast of a 70-200 f2.8 Tamron lens in case you're interested.

5/05/12

More Festival of Fools today. This isn't the best shot of the day but this was one of the better juggling acts at the festival - Haggis and Charlie. Lively and funny - I would have liked to have seen a bit more variety and a bit more juggling with fire but hey - you can't have everything.

6/05/12

8am Sunday morning, Belfast City centre. 4 hours of shooting the Belfast Roller Derby girls in action during the making of a promo video. This tired me out, even if I was already knackered after a poor night's sleep. It was an amazing morning and we were able to get some excellent shots. Several re-takes were needed due to my exceptional ability to stray into the shot when filming. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished product.