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.