Music has always been a really big part of my life. I was lucky to have parents who took me along to gigs. I went to my first concert when I was just 4 or 5- it was the Australian band for kids - High 5 and ever since then my parents have taken me along to concerts. They've taken me to see my favourite bands including Taylor Swift and Girls Aloud. When I was teenager they would have en encouraged me and my friends to go along to concerts in Belfast and Dublin.

Once I got to the age where I could go off by myself, especially once I moved to uni, I've been to a lot of gig and lots of live music. Since live music has come back after the pandemic it's been so good to get back to concerts.  I just think there's something electric about being in a room where everyone is singing along to the lyrics of their favourite songs.  So, I thought I'd share why Belfast is a really great place for music and share some places you should check out and some things you should look out for that are coming up soon.

UNESCO City of Music

Belfast is a UNESCO city of music which means it's been recognised at an international level as being somewhere with lots of up-and-coming talent and lots happening in it's music scene. There's lots of local talent that you can see in Belfast but lots of international artists tour here as well.

There's a good range of venue sizes so smaller artists might tour some places and the really big global acts tour some of our arenas and some of the summer music festivals. There is a lot of variety in Belfast's music scene and lots of big and really important artists like U2 and Snow Patrol that have been linked to Belfast in the past.

So I thought I'd share some of my favourite venues to go for music, a little bit of my favourite concerts I've been to and hopefully inspire you when you're looking for your next gig!

Find out more

Life in Belfast

Nightlife and Music

Read Kathryn's blog about Belfast

Kathryn Allen Medicine| Undergraduate Student | Lisburn, NI I’m a 21 year old student originally from Lisburn and starting my fourth year of Medicine at Queen's in September- I love my degree because its combines caring for people, learning fascinating things and working as a team. When I’m not busy surviving placement and exams, you can find me in one of Belfast’s great coffee shops with a friend, going to concerts to get my fix of live music, or curling up to read a book with a carefully curated Spotify playlist on in the background!