ON TUESDAY night, the sound of the opening gig of the Belsonic festival – featuring Thirty Seconds to Mars and You Me At Six – could be heard booming right across Belfast and beyond.
The young audience was ecstatic when Thirty Seconds frontman Jared Leto took to the stage, kitted out in a cape, Raybans and a super-sized quiff. Last night was the turn of rapper Dizzee Rascal, while Primal Scream – performing every track from their classic album Screamadelica– are next up on Friday. Shows continue with Liam Gallagher's band Beady Eye, Tinie Tempah, Elbow, Plan B and Tiësto, and The Specials round off the musical marathon on August 27th.
The main difference between Belsonic and most other music festivals, large or small, is that it isn’t held in a field, but right in the middle of a city. Custom House Square, normally populated by young skateboarders and the odd scavenging seagull, is the location for the nine-night event, now in its fourth year. So no need to camp, which means forget about mud, damp clothing and paying for overpriced food at every meal. The downside is that Belsonic – really more a series of high-profile gigs than a regular music festival – lacks the identity and intensity of the live-in festival experience.
What you gain in convenience and cleanliness you lose in sustained atmosphere. But most local fans are unfazed – simply grateful the acts they want to see are coming to Belfast rather than Dublin or elsewhere.
The big names on the bill guarantee large audiences: the opening gig sold out, and tickets for the other events are going fast. And the sheer range of acts on offer – rap, dance, rock, ska – means Belsonic not only has cross-genre appeal but cross-generational pull too. For instance, the age profile at the Tiësto gig is likely to be dramatically different from that at the Specials show. Yet this is a recipe that has worked for organisers Shine Productions since Belsonic’s inception as a three-day event in 2008.
Last year, 40,000 people descended on Belfast city centre for sell-out shows from Biffy Clyro, Paolo Nutini and Florence and The Machine.
It’s not all about the very biggest names: much-anticipated support acts at this year’s festival include Example, Katy B, Fight Like Apes and Maverick Sabre. But fans of London-based indie group The Vaccines, who were due to support Beady Eye, were disappointed at the band’s last-minute cancellation, following concerns over the state of singer Justin Hayward-Young’s vocal cords. The cancellation gives a leg-up to local band General Fiasco. Other Northern bands benefiting from the line-up include Cashier No 9 and Belfast ska punk band Pocket Billiards.
It’s a long way from the days of the Troubles, when few artists would venture to play in Belfast. Those who did were greeted with particular warmth and gratitude by local crowds. Something of that spirit still prevails, as acknowledged by Liam Gallagher, ahead of the Beady Eye gig this Saturday. “The people in Northern Ireland are always so up for it – they just get it,” he said.