Belfast will host the All-Ireland Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann from 2 to 9 August 2026, the first time the world’s largest Irish music festival has been held in the city. Organisers expect more than 800,000 visitors across the eight days.

Qualification for the event ended this week at the Ulster Fleadh in Warrenpoint, County Down. Organiser Jimi Quinn explained that the top two finishers in each competition earned a place in the All-Ireland. Competitors included 16-year-old Eimear Sloan, youth officer for Warrenpoint Comhaltas, and Mayobridge brothers Ayman Morgan, 12, and Rayan Morgan, 13, on fiddle and accordion. Dancers Rory Magee, Cailha Byrne, Maisie Keenan and Max Smith also took part, performing a variety of Irish dance styles.

Belfast City Council has granted a series of licences to accommodate the crowds. Entertainment licences and temporary pavement café licences have been approved for venues including Neighbourhood Café and Bakarí bakery on Donegall Street. Around 100 businesses will operate street trading pitches, 60 inside a pedestrianised event zone on High Street, Bridge Street and Royal Avenue, and 40 elsewhere in the city centre.

Transport arrangements include late-night Translink services on the busiest days, with shuttle buses from park-and-ride sites running until 2am on select dates. Designated taxi pick-up and drop-off points are set at Corporation Street, Little Donegall Street, the junction of North Street and Royal Avenue, King Street, Adelaide Street and Chichester Street. Coach operators can use a terminal on Linenhall Street and three parking sites.

A fringe festival of more than 90 events will take activities into local neighbourhoods across the city.

Among the scheduled performers are Bangor singer-songwriter Brendan Monaghan, fiddler Niall McClean and vocalist Amanda Agnew, who will appear at the Ulster Hall. Monaghan said it is his first All-Ireland Fleadh. McClean, a musician for more than 40 years, co-chairs a local Comhaltas organising committee and runs music classes in Bangor with his wife. The performance coincides with the 50th anniversary of Ards Comhaltas.