WHERE is the hope on the horizon for the New Year?

The 4 Corners Festival likes to pop up at the time of year when change is needed and if you attend the events you make connections and see and hear more voices and songs, writing and art than the mainstream leads you to believe exists. The main narrative of a conflicted city is not ignored but the people of Christian faith of all hues get an opportunity to move outside of their structures and are welcomed across the city.

This year 'Hope' – that most elusive of emotions that has got many of us through difficult times – is the main theme. You do not need to have an active faith to get benefit from the festival – in fact, many people I have brought have expressed surprise at the reality of how the city's faith traditions function.

Father Martin Magill of St John's Parish, Reverend Steve Stockman of Fitzroy Presbyterian, Ed Petersen of Clonard and Heather Palmer and Tony Hennessey are all directors of the 4 Corners charity. The festival over eleven years has run over 330 events, with many thousands of people attending. If you have not been yet, why not make this the year you join in? If you're fed up with faith traditions, come see from a different angle.

Hope can be in short supply and inspiration and support are – well... hopeful. We know that mistrust of 'the other' can be hard to overcome, but opportunity and hope can spur us all on bit by bit and each conversation and connection can shift us on that little bit further.

So what does this year have in store? both RTÉ and the BBC are covering the festival services, with RTÉ televising the festival  for the first time with Bishop Alan Abernethy, retired Church of Ireland Bishop, and Jim Deeds, Catholic lay pastoral worker. Part of what they will explore is challenging the myth of otherness. BBC radio is broadcasting from the Cliftonville Road.

There are litter picks with invited youth groups in the city cemetery. There's the much loved Knitting the 4 Corners Together event at Fitzroy Presbyterian for all us closet knitters. The West Coast Camera Club will focus on the festival theme in their exhibition in Artcetera and there's the opportunity to walk and wander around places and spaces in the city that you might be unfamiliar with. Sport and writing feature with the Ulster University welcoming a writer  to work with young people.

Trú, the band made up of an Irish nationalist, someone from Ulster Scots heritage and a British Ukranian, will play in Orangefield Church and as Belfast Stories takes shape you can participate in making your own 'matchbox story' to include in the large cultural project at 2 Royal Avenue. There are night prayers online and in St Comgall's.

As is normal, tickets are free with some events live streamed on to Youtube. Donations are welcome. The 4 Corners Festival runs from January 26 to February 11.