Members of the Belfast Flavours Committee attended the 2025 Fleadh as part of a Belfast City delegation. Held in Wexford Town, the organiser’s reported that 800,000 people visited the event alongside 7,000+ competitors.

To give you an idea of the scale, they sold 900,000 pints of Guinness and the 2025 Fleadh was the biggest held to date. For those of you who remember the World Police & Fire Games, we are expecting more visitors than came here for that in 2013 with activity more concentrated in Belfast than it was then.

With road closures in place, the streets of Wexford were jam-packed full of people, live music and cultural activity. Visitors were catered for in cafes, restaurants and bars as well as street food vans in prime locations across the town.

2025 was the second year Wexford had hosted the festival and they had learnt, from their experience and that of those who hosted before them, about the importance of being prepared.

Many establishments had set-up additional service outside their premises at stalls and from vans or had cleverly created “hatches” to serve from. Menus had been adapted for speed of service, for food-on-the-move and to showcase the best of their local produce and suppliers.

Establishments we saw spoke of staffing up, putting holidays on hold, liaising with suppliers, considering waste management and sustainability challenges to ensure that they were able to cater for the high volume of visitors whilst ensuring a top quality, locally authentic experience.

Whilst hospitality is important for all City visitors, this event brings additional requirements and unique opportunities:

1. There is a need to feed groups of participants including adjudicators, festival organisers and volunteers in the specific locations where they are based across the City

2. Fleadh visitors, whether audiences or competitors and their families, all need to be catered for across the day. Depending on their accommodation type this may include breakfast, lunch and dinner.

3. This is also an important opportunity to showcase our food and drink producers, chefs, restaurants, mixologists, bars and street food traders, encouraging repeat visits and raising profile of our food and drink offering and our status as a world-class culinary destination.

‍The map showing the full footprint of the Fleadh is yet to be published.

Mid-January it was announced that the main venues will include:

• Belfast City Hall where the main stage, known as the Gig Rig will be set-up with free performances taking place across the festival.

• The Waterfront and Ulster Hall plus ICC and MAC will all be used for performances with some also hosting competitions.

• Titanic Quarter’s outdoor landscape will be used as the home for some larger band competitions

• Ulster University will be host Scoil Éigse which offers young and up and coming musicians a unique opportunity to learn from traditional music’s best teachers and musicians. This week of intensive tuition and fun filled sessions at ‘Club na hÉigse’ culminates in a special concert featuring students and tutors.

No, there will be a fringe programme of events running at indoor and outdoor venues across Greater Belfast. There will also be activity taking place in North Down who were one of the partners who helped Belfast win the Bid.

Arrangements are currently being finalised for a camp site and visitors will stay in all types of accommodation across the City and beyond.

‍Yes there will be road closures for the duration of the event in the City Centre. Details of these will be released by Belfast City Council. Should your business fall within the closure, the Council’s team will be in touch regarding access for deliveries etc.

Belfast City Council are currently working on all aspects of licensing. Please keep an eye out for updates from them and we will let you know of any news we have.

There will be a number of opportunities to maximise the opportunities this event presents. Details on how to apply to be part of specific elements will be announced in the coming weeks by Belfast City Council so in the meantime, check back here for updates.

Depending on your business there will be different ways you can get involved:

Street Food:

There will be an Official Food Village located in the Cathedral Quarter. Belfast City Council will share details on how to participate in the coming weeks.

There will also be street food concessions and trader markets at other locations across the City which will be managed independently by land owners and market organisers. We will publish any opportunities we are made aware of, the first of which is for the ICC - details can be found HERE.

Producers:

St George’s Market will have extended opening hours across the 8 days of the Festival.

There may be one or more local producers’ markets held across the City. We will publish any opportunities we are made aware of.

Restaurants, Cafes and Bars:

There may be opportunities for group bookings across the festival which would include lunch and/or dinner events and provision for media, organisers and adjudicators. We will publish any opportunities we are made aware of.

There are upcoming sessions planned:

Hospitality and Tourism Briefing

Belfast City Council and Belfast Tourism Forum are hosting a hospitality and tourism briefing to help local businesses get ready for Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2026.

Location: Belfast City Hall

Date: Monday 23 March,

Time: 12 noon to 2.30pm,

The session will cover:

• What the Fleadh is,

• Expected visitor numbers,

• Opportunities for hotels, bars, restaurants and visitor experiences.

To register and find full details, visit the Council’s events page and complete the online booking form.

Keep an eye on Belfast City Council’s socials and Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann 2026for further updates.