The Department for Communities is working to recover a £10,000 advance payment made towards a planned concert at Belfast City Hall that was cancelled after organisers failed to secure headline acts. The event, intended to mark the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence on 4 July, was announced in January but abandoned earlier this year.

Communities Minister Gordon Lyons has now disclosed that a preferred headline act had been identified, approached, and had provisionally indicated availability before the department committed £30,000 in public funding. The Ulster-Scots Agency, which was involved in the planning, provided this information in Assembly written answers.

Lyons confirmed his department was not the event organiser and had no contractual obligations. The £10,000 advance was issued in the 2025/26 financial year to support early planning. Discussions are ongoing to determine what portion of that money can be recovered, as some was already spent on preparations.

The minister stated that the level of unrecoverable expenditure cannot yet be determined. He noted that any funding from Belfast City Council or other public bodies was a matter for those organisations.

Alliance MLA Sian Mulholland, who tabled the written questions, said serious questions remained over the commitment of public money to a project with insufficient planning. She called for transparency and accountability, describing the allocation of funds as remarkably foolish on the minister's part.

The concert had been billed as featuring high-profile acts, with American performers expected to join via video link. However, the Ulster-Scots Agency later cited availability of headline acts as one factor that led to the cancellation.