Banish the January blues at Belfast’s Out to Lunch Festival
Celebrating its 20th anniversary in 2025, Out to Lunch is a vibrant arts festival in Belfast that features both local and internationally renowned artists.
Part of the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Out to Lunch takes place in an eclectic mix of venues across the city’s rejuvenated cobblestoned trading quarter around St Anne’s Cathedral, which has become the center of Belfast’s cultural and social scene.
The festival is a mix of top acts and emerging talent. Previous performers have included Janis Ian, The Strypes, Arlo Guthrie, Hazel O’Connor, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Billy Bragg and Nish Kumar. Among the acts announced so far for next year’s festival are comedians Lucy Porter, Shaparak Khorsandi and Andrew Maxwell, legendary 70s folk-rock pioneers Lindisfarne, 80s electronica band 808 State and award-winning singer-songwriter Emily Barker.
The festival will also offer its signature Opera for Lunch and Opera for Tea sessions where you can watch performances of cabaret classics while enjoying a light meal.
The program of some 60 events takes place in a diverse range of venues that include dedicated performance spaces such as The Black Box as well as pubs, churches, galleries, and historic buildings.
To find out more about the Belfast’s cultural history you can sign up for one of the festival’s walking tours, which include a tour of historic Belfast cinema sites and a tour of the Cathedral Quarter’s historic pubs.
The festival’s roots are in the wider Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival which was established in 1999 after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement which brought the ‘Troubles’ to an end. It was an attempt to regenerate the north city center through arts and culture and bring people back into the city center in the evening.
The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival takes place in May and it and Out to Lunch have been a resounding success growing year on year to become significant dates in Belfast’s cultural calendar.
No matter how cold the weather, the warmth of a Belfast welcome makes the city a perfect post-Christmas getaway. And beyond the festival there is always plenty to see and do, from visiting the world-renowned Titanic Belfast and historic Crumlin Road Gaol or browsing its bustling St George’s Market, to enjoying an evening in its music-filled pubs and excellent restaurants.