The Oh Yeah Music Centre has announced details of its 2020 Sound of Belfast festival.

The annual programme now in its 7th year was established to promote and celebrate the musicians, bands, venues, promoters and music communities of Belfast.

This series of events is usually dominated by live shows in venues across the city. The idea has always been to highlight the work of our world-class artists, local venues and hard working promoters. Every year Sound of Belfast includes a blend of collaborative, independent and partnership events involving showcases and gigs, as well as the NI Music Prize, Oh Yeah Legend Award and a lively mix industry talks, panels and workshops. Each time the schedule also includes youth, family and community events and people are encouraged to participate, explore and enjoy music, coming together in venues, discovering new sounds and celebrating their city.

This year is different.

This year has been hit with the COVID-19 pandemic and everything has changed. Since going into lockdown in March there have been no live shows, no gigs, no festivals and no tours. The impact on musicians, live music, promoters, venues and events has been huge, both financial and emotional. Equally the impact on the well being of music audiences, fans and stalwart gig goers cannot be ignored.

So when Oh Yeah decided to make Sound of Belfast happen this year, the team knew it had to be done in a way that strongly communicates that our community still exists and that we will return to live music one day.

The resulting programme has been designed to give you a flavour of how musically great and diverse Belfast is. Recorded live in many of our empty venues across the city and representing a range of genres and sounds. So plentiful is our music, this is only a snapshot, but it gives any viewer or listener a good idea of what we have to admire about Belfast. The programme also includes special online events, a spotlight on great projects and industry workshops and talks.

Thank you to the venues and artists that got on board with our idea. More than anything this year the aim is to lift spirits, instil pride and remind people that music plays a significant and important role in people’s lives.

So this is for the venues, the musicians and the invisible crew, the sound engineers and all the people that go into making events great.

We hope you can join us and please share, comment and show them some love.

And when the doors reopen and it is safe to return, please go to more shows, more gigs and more festivals.

Until then, stay safe and tune into our programme from home.