The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival (CQAF) features an eclectic and generously packed programme of lunchtime music, comedy, theatre, literature, film, circus, visual art and special events throughout Belfast. This trailblazing festival once again emerges into the May sunshine with a programme to challenge, amuse, inspire and confuse its growing audiences.

From fringe theatre to performance art, no-holds-barred comedy to circus mayhem, the event is set once again to bring the city alive with music, words and ideas. The Cathedral Quarter in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is an area roughly situated between Royal Avenue and the Dunbar Link in the city centre. It is so called because St Anne's Cathedral lies at its heart.

The definition of the area as a cultural quarter mostly came about because of the high concentration of arts and culture based organisations that are based there. As is the case with London's Covent Garden and Dublin's Temple Bar, low rent and a central city location attracted the area to a wide variety of tenants not otherwise represented in the city. Some examples include Northern Visions, Belfast Print Workshop and Belfast's Zen Meditation community, which has its heaquarters at Black Mountain Zen Centre in Catheral Buildings. However, dilapidated infrastructure prevented any sort of mass repopulation of the area until recently. This was made worse in 2003 when the North Street Arcade, a listed building from the 1930s in the traditional Art Deco style, burned down in what many people believe were suspicious circumstances.

The Belfast Film Festival is an annual film festival that takes places in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Commencing in the mid 1990s, it was originally held as part of the West Belfast Festival. Two weeks after the 2004 event, the festivals offices in Donegall Street's historic North Street Arcade were decimated by fire. Despite losing their base, entire history and all their records the festival recovered and was able to stage the event again in 2005. The 2005 festival was held from 7 April to 16 April.

Opened by local actor Stephen Rea, the festival featured screenings including Bullet Boy, Les Choriste and Palindromes. Jonathan Caouette hosted a workshop about the making of his film Tarnation, which was the festivals closing night screening. A strong emphasis is put on showcasing the work of local film makers. Later in 2005 the festival hosted two drive-in cinema nights as part of the Belfast Festival at Queens. The festival takes places in various venues around the city including the Strand Cinema, the Waterfront Hall, the Culturlann Centre, the John Hewitt Bar and Queen's Film Theatre.

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org
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