Festival of Fools - Thursday 3 to Monday 7 May 2012

The Festival of Fools is back for the ninth year. Comedy, circus and – new this year – food!

The opening ceremony takes place at 6pm on Thursday 3 May in St Anne’s Square (and repeated the following evening). Sixty five performers, live music, acrobatics, aerial circus and carnival. Listen to the story of the Giants Causeway and the Titanic (with the Library Monkeys, Finn McCool and Samson and Goliath thrown in for good measure).

Over the long weekend, you can sample the delights of Earnest the Magnifico’s stunt show, Jonathan Burns contortions, pole-climbing Derek McAlister, deluded Italian knights El Cataldo, a hula hooping stunt cycling granny, two mysterious caretakers from the depths of the world, the Stickleback Plasticus Cats Choir, and more … with the Big Finish Cabaret Encore rounding off each evening in St Anne’s Square.

There will be live shows on the hour in Fountain Street, Cornmarket, Rosemary Street, Cotton Court and St Anne’s Square. Check out the website, or call into the pop-up festival ‘shop’ on Castle Lane, just off Cornmarket.

Everything is free – though the organisers are keen to collect donations to help meet the costs of the festival.

If comedy is not enough to entice you into Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter, the Festival of Fools is appealing to your tummy too.

Local eateries have got together to offer the Festival of Foods. No joke. The 4th Wall, No 27 Talbot Street, The Potted Hen, The John Hewitt, Nick’s Warehouse, 2Taps, The Cloth Ear, Deli Lites, Little Wing Pizzeria (in Ann Street), La Boca and The Garrick are all offering discounts. Details and vouchers in copies of the festival programme and on the festival website.