Saturday 14th June - Creative Climate: Arts Leading the Sustainable Shift
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10-11am: Through the Lens: Climate in Focus with Belfast Photo Festival
Join Michael Weir, Director of the Belfast Photo Festival, in conversation with this year’s commissioned artists as they explore how photography can respond to the climate crisis. From stark realities to hopeful visions, this panel unpacks the power of visual storytelling to challenge, connect, and inspire action in a warming world.
https://www.belfastphotofestival.com/
Michael Weir (Director, Belfast Photo Festival)
Polly Garnett (Community artist, and educator)
Chad Alexander (Fine art and editorial photographer)
Joe Laverty (Photographic artist and film maker) -
11am-12pm: Greenlights & Green Screens: Making Film & TV Sustainable
How can we make the screen industry greener, fairer, and fit for the future? This panel explores the big-picture solutions — from sustainable funding and equity-led green new deals to on-set waste reduction and climate-conscious production practices. Join producers, funders, and eco-innovators to imagine a film and TV industry that’s as sustainable as it is creative.
Gavin Kelly (Facilities and Sustainability Manager, NI Screen)
Amanda Doherty (Equity - Green New deal)
Moya Doogan (Environment Aléadaí) -
12-2pm: Acoustic Picnic with OhYeah
Join us for a very special Acoustic Picnic on the 14th June as part of Summer Solstice from the Brink! - a 10 day festival of culture, conversation and workshops centred on the climate crisis.
The beloved family fun event provides a space for families to come together, bring a picnic, and enjoy the lively atmosphere and creative activities. With live music from OTH Collective.
The event is free, please register your interest here, so we can manage numbers.
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2.15-3.15PM: The Landscape is Changing: Tuning Up for a Greener Music Scene
The first phase of the Belfast Sustainable Music Industry Toolkit is complete — now it's time to turn up the volume on what comes next. This panel brings together artists, venues, and council to discuss how everyone can play their part in hitting the right note for a sustainable future. Read more.
Ciara Moynahan (Native Events / Julies Bicycle Europe)
Dee McAdams (Oh Yeah) -
3.15-4pm: Belfast City: Sounding Out a Sustainable Future
In this interactive workshop session, the mic is passed to you. Between panels, we’ll take 30 minutes to gather audience insights on how sustainability intersects with every corner of the music industry — from gigs to green jobs.
Help spark bold ideas for what a truly sustainable UNESCO City of Music could look and sound like. Your voice matters — let’s build it together.
Hosted by Native Events.
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4-5pm: My Generation: Reimagining Music, Rebuilding Futures
What if the future of Northern Ireland’s music industry wasn’t just louder — but fairer, greener, and built to last? This panel dives into bold ideas for a sustainable transition, exploring how community wealth building, cooperatives, and shared ownership models could reshape the way artists, managers, venues, and festivals thrive. Let’s remix the industry — for this generation and the next. Read more.
Megan Best (CEO, Native Events / Julies Bicycle Europe)
Tiziana O’Hara (Cooperative Alternatives)
In partnership with
Under the Stars, Against the Storm:
Climate Cinema in the Open Air
7-10pm
Out Of The Peat / Skyward / Public Trust
PATAGONIA ‘PUBLIC TRUST’
(1 hr 40 min)
A Film About The Fight for America’s Public Lands.
Held in trust by the federal government, these places are a natural stronghold against climate change, sacred to Indigenous people, and home to much of our remaining wildlife.
However, despite support from voters across the political spectrum, they face unprecedented threats from extractive industries and the politicians in their pockets.
Director: David Garrett Byars
Producer: Jeremy Hunter Rubingh
Exec Producer: Robert Redford
Produced by Patagonia
The seating area will be chairs and tables laid out in cabaret style, under a large canopy for rain cover. We’re in Northern Ireland so you just never know with the weather. Dress appropriately please & you’re welcome to bring treats.
‘OUT OF THE PEAT’
(12 min)
Out of the Peat is a queer eco-horror which reflects on what it means to bury, to archive, to capture, to unearth.
Shot in collaboration with the Lancashire Wildlife Trust, the film becomes both a lament and call to action for local peat-bog conservation.
Flesh as film, and film as flesh... An amateur archaeologist arrives on a desolate peatland in Lancashire, their mind filled with the strange power that peat-bog waters hold to preserve organic matter. They have come to excavate the peatland. They have come to exhume a body. But, in digging into the peat — and into the past — they unearth much more than mere relics.
Directors: Tabitha Carless-Frost, Theo Rollason
Producer: Tate Turnbull
Supported by the BFI Network Film Fund.
‘SKYWARD’
(20 min)
This short documentary follows two young bird enthusiasts who are looking to spread their love of nature and its rewards into their local communities.
Director Jessica Bishopp captures Mya and Arjun in their natural habitat, be it on early morning spotting sessions or delivering presentations to local school children, with a tactile, sensorial approach.
Her camera is intimate yet completely non-invasive and the sound design is impeccable at immersing the audience in the sonic palette of the nature Mya and Arjun are championing.
Supported by BFI Doc Society through Made of Truth, in collaboration with The Guardian Documentaries.
In partnership with
Food & Drink
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Coffee & Tea
Native Coffee are about more than just serving coffee, they host a variety of independent businesses and artists from Belfast and across Northern Ireland. They have built their community on coffee, connection and creativity - check out their Climate Cafes & Sober Socials.
They’re going to be serving hot drinks through the day.
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Pastries
Bakari Bakery are a family-run artisan bakery in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Inspired by Scandinavian baking traditions, we strive to bring the people of Belfast delicious baked goods using local, organic ingredients where possible and imported organic where necessary.
They’re supplying our beautiful pastries each day.
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Food
Rather than bringing food trucks onto our site, we would love if you would support our food neighbours - the local businesses who serve up amazing food from pizzas to bagels, from lebanese to cheese - we’re spoiled, so please support them.
Deerah, The Boxing Hare, Bodega Bagels, Mikes Fancy Cheese .. don’t forget the Watson food hatch!
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Drinks
Our favourite bar in Belfast just happens to be our neighbour too & have been an important part of our events during our time on the Belfast Stories site. During the festival the Sunflower Pub will be our bar partner during the evening events on the site.
Brink! is a social enterprise using culture to engage with people on issues related to the climate crisis.
We work and play at the point of change exploring new ways to think and act in our city.
This June, Summer Solstice from the Brink! brings 10 days of culture, conversation and climate action to Belfast.
We’re also on the hunt for a new home — so every penny you chip in helps us keep creating space for bold ideas and big change.