Details have been announced today of a series of free pop-up gigs being staged to showcase Belfast’s breadth of musical talent.

Eleven
free showcases will take place in venues throughout the city centre and
Cathedral Quarter, following Northern Ireland’s largest ever one day
music conference, being hosted by Belfast City Council on Thursday
October 16.

During the day, ‘Creative Belfast presents Output’ –
which takes place in the MAC and the Oh Yeah Centre – will be attended
by around 350 artists, businesses and creative students, and will
address the challenges and opportunities that the music industry
presents, highlighting the key role that music and performance plays
within Northern Ireland’s buoyant creative industries sector.

At
night, the emphasis will switch to live music, with free pop-up gigs at
11 venues across the city centre, with emphasis on the Cathedral
Quarter.  These include:

•    David C.Clements (solo), ViolaDust, The Clameens and Go Wolf at Aether and Echo (presented by Third Bar and Generator NI);
•    The Altered Hours, Autumns and Ship and Contour at the Black Box (presented by The Thin Air and Nialler 9);

Ryan Vail, Slow Place Like Home, Ciaran Lavery and Ports at the Black
Box Green Room (presented by Electric Mainline and Smalltown America);
•    In An Instant, Callum Stewart, Hurdles and More Than Conquerors at the Duke Of York (presented by Old Fang and Sentric);

Amanda St John, Bernadette Morris, Owen McGarry and Triona Carville at
the Harp Bar (presented by IMRO and Real Music Club);
•    Jess Edlin, Katherine Philippa, Robocobra Quartet and Silences at McHugh’s (presented by Big Space Studio and SARC);
•    Oh Volcano, Go Swim, Goldie Fawn and Travis Is A Tourist at the Oh Yeah Centre (presented by Friday Night Mashup and PRS);
•    Best Boy Grip, Jessica Doherty, Janet Devlin and Rosie Carney at The Spaniard (presented by Nerve Centre and Honeycomb);

Farriers, Meb Jon Sol, Robyn G Shiels and Arborist at the Sunflower
(presented by Folk And Tumble and Start Together Studios);
•    Exit
Pursued By A Bear, Joshua Burnside, Michael Mormecha and Emerald Armada
at Voodoo (presented by FourAcre and Forfey); and
•    Lipstik
Lizards, White Male Actors and Team RKT at White’s Tavern (presented by
the Further Education Colleges and Broken Melody Records).

Organised
by Belfast City Council in partnership with the Department of Culture,
Arts and Leisure and Invest NI music industry development programme
Generator NI, and supported by Oh Yeah Music, the daytime conference
will include panel discussions, music sessions, workshops and speed
networking events as well as keynote speeches from Grammy and Brit
award-winning musicians and managers of globally recognised talent.

Speakers
at the ‘Creative Belfast presents Output’ conference will include Tom
Robinson from BBC 6 Music; artist, performer and motivational speaker
Andrew WK; ‘The X Factor’ finalist Janet Devlin; Andrea Madden, music
supervisor on ‘Made in Chelsea’; Marsha Shandur, music supervisor for
The Inbetweeners and Channel 4; Joe Parry of top London music PR company
Division; Hugh Platt, deputy editor of Thrash Hits magazine; BBC Young
Folk Musician Of The Year Aidan O’Rourke; composer and cellist Peter
Gregson and Niall Byrne of leading music blog Nialler 9.  Organisations
and companies taking part in the conference programme include Facebook,
Sky TV, PRS, Polar Patrol Publishing, 1983 Management, Sentric Music,
PPL, MCPS, IMRO, Liverpool Sound City, Belsonic, The Great Escape, MCD
Promotions, Body and Soul, Norwich Sound and Vision, Go North, SESAC,
Raygun, The Thin Air and Wicksteed Works, Indiependence Festival and
Facebook.

To register for the conference, and for more details on
both the conference programme and the free showcases, go to
www.belfastcity.gov.uk/music.

“The economic and cultural
contribution and potential of the creative industries is widely
acknowledged,” commented Councillor Deirdre Hargey, Chair of the
council’s Development Committee.

“The council’s ongoing support
for creative and digital industries includes support for those working
in the fields of film, music, digital media and design to achieve their
true economic and creative potential.  This unique one day event is
designed to provide a high quality, internationally recognised
conference and showcasing event that will  help to underpin and
accelerate the development of skills, networks and market opportunities
for artists and businesses in Belfast’s burgeoning music industry
sector,” she added.

‘Creative Belfast presents Output’ is one of
several exciting music initiatives taking place in Belfast this autumn,
including the Big Music Project on October 18, and ‘Sounds Of Belfast’,
including the annual NI Music Prize, organised by the Oh Yeah Centre,
from November 12-15.

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ISSUED BY CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS, BELFAST CITY COUNCIL

NOTE TO EDITORS:

‘Creative
Belfast presents Output’ is being delivered by Belfast City Council, in
partnership with the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure and Invest
NI music industry development programme Generator NI, with conference
programming also supported by Honeycomb-Creative Works.

The three
year Generator NI (www.generatorni.com) programme will deliver
development support to artists, managers, record labels and music
publishers to assist in developing skills, new markets, networks and
competencies. The programme is funded by the Department of Culture, Arts
and Leisure (DCAL) and Invest Northern Ireland and aims to contribute
to wider economic and social development by supporting a creative and
vibrant music sector which achieves consistent and sustainable economic
growth.  It will also help stimulate cross-sectoral linkages within the
wider creative industries and nurture opportunities for music businesses
to develop partnerships across the film and television sectors and
other diverse digital platforms.

Honeycomb-Creative Works
(www.thehoneycomb.net) is a programme targeted at the digital content
sector across the INTERREG IVA region of Northern Ireland, the six
border counties of the Republic of Ireland and the western seaboard of
Scotland.  The programme is being delivered by a partnership led by
University of Ulster and comprising Dundalk Institute of Technology
(DkIT) and Creative Skillset. Honeycomb will address the economic,
educational, social and cultural needs of the sector by focusing on
SMEs, organisations and individuals that play a role, or have a vested
interest in the development of the digital content sub-sector.