About the
Belfast Book Festival

The Belfast Book Festival is an annual Festival run by The Crescent Arts Centre.

Dates for 2026 are: 4 - 11 June.

Each June we invite you into our beautiful Victorian home to meet, watch and listen to storytellers; to write your own stories; to get crafty; to build, borrow or buy your summer reading list. At the very least let us introduce you to the colony of swifts that The Crescent is a home to: spot them in the skies around us from late April to August!

The Belfast Book Festival is a Platform. Northern Ireland is bursting with storytelling talent that we bring to you via a series of conversations, workshops, residencies and Awards that seek to connect, amplify and showcase our creative communities.

We also run the annual Mairtín Crawford Awards for Short Story and Poetry, named after the beloved writer and poet who was a significant figure in Northern Ireland's literary community. Click here to learn more about Mairtín Crawford.

Our thanks go to all our supporters, including you! A particular nod to The Crescent’s Principal Funder The Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and investment support from Belfast City Council. It's a pleasure to work with, and have ongoing support from a number of Festival Sponsors, and Event Supporters and Partners.

Festival Sponsors include: Elliotts Legal and Ourselves.

Event Supporters and Partners include: The Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation; BookTrust Northern Ireland; Cafe Husk at The Crescent; Hastings Hotels; Irish PEN/PEN na hÉireann; The John & Pat Hume Foundation; Joseph Rowntree Foundation; Libraries NI; Linen Quarter Bid; National Literacy Trust, Northern Ireland; No Alibis Bookstore; and Seamus Heaney Centre.