Now in its 11th year, the annual June event is a unique, diverse and highly creative mix of events as we celebrate bestselling authors and award-winning poetry and spoken word artists, features well-known personalities and journalists, and showcases the wealth of local talent that defines our thriving literary community. The Crescent is home to Northern Ireland’s leading literary festival, the Belfast Book Festival. Featuring a unique, diverse and highly creative programme, each year the Festival caters for a wide range of interests and explores many topical themes. 

The Crescent Arts Centre is home to The Belfast Book Festival which proudly hosting the annual Mairtín Crawford Awards for Short Story and Poetry, named after the beloved writer and poet and who was a significant figure in Northern Ireland's literary community. Click here to learn more about Mairtín Crawford.

Each summer the building is filled with a wide range of activities and every year our programme is a unique, diverse and highly creative mix of events that caters for a wide range of interests and explores many topical themes. Featuring well-known authors, comedians and journalists, there is something for all tastes and interests at the Belfast Book Festival! The festival has grown from strength to strength over the last 10 years, and each year we deliver a jam-packed and diverse programme of events.

This festival is for everyone. For the regular literary festival-goer or those who simply wish to broaden their knowledge of the local arts scene and the tremendous diversity, let along value for money, the Festival offers. We blend together a whole host of events to create a truly exciting programme for all ages and book tastes.

Festival-goers are being treated to the best international and local talent at The Crescent and partner venues across the city. If you have never been to the Festival before, make 2022 your first visit... you won't be disappointed!  Our festival is more than just a literary celebration, it is a feast of arts activity encompassing music, theatre, film comedy and much more.

The Belfast Book Festival, with its broad and accessible approach to all things literary, covering all manner of genres, from children’s novels to sporting biographies and much else in between, has inspired the city to think differently about books. The programme for 2019 matches with a renewed energy and vision the very best editions of this vibrant celebration, convening a wonderful gathering of writers, thinkers, personalities and opinion-formers, all of whom reach for creative words to achieve their ambitions. The Arts Council, as principal funder, is proud to support the ninth Belfast Book Festival as it continues to promote the immeasurable joy of books, in all their forms.

Damian Smyth, Head of Literature and Drama, Arts Council of Northern Ireland