THE largest general arts festival on the island and one of the largest in these islands starts on Monday, when the three week long Belfast Festival at Queen's rolls into action.

Jennifer Johnston's The Desert Lullaby has already opened at the Lyric, and anyone in the country who goes to the theatre will want to see the great novelist adapting to a form she uses more rarely, and exploring family and the past, as she has done in some of her best work. I Fiamminghi, the Belgian Chamber Orchestra, plays a programme featuring Tchaikovsky, Frieg, Brosse, Part and Gorecki on Monday at the Whitla Hall. Sean Keane from the famous Keane family will be storming through traditional music on his fiddle at the Harp Club on Friday.

Two of the funniest Irishmen alive will be, well, funny: Eddie Izzard on Wednesday at the Ulster Hail and Ardal O'Hanlon on Friday and Saturday at the Arts. The rock highlight will probably be The Beautiful South's Ulster Hall gig on Thursday, but the more advanced in years among us may hie instead to Jackson Browne at the Whifla Hall on the same night.