The opening launch of the Féile an Phobail visual arts exhibitions in St Mary's University College on Wednesday 31 July at 6pm is sure to be a lively evening.

An eclectic group of exhibitions will take place in the corridors and side rooms of the college. The 45 exhibitions this year mange to include many artforms with painting well represented. Indeed, 10 artists take up the challenge of landscape painting.

Landscapes vary from Donegal to Belfast and everything in between with Michelle Gill’s exhibition title evocative of what many people feel on connecting with vast expanses of Mother Nature: ‘My Escape’.

Lise McGreevy currently has an exhibition on in McClay Library at Queen’s on what it means to be a woman but this year at the Féile she has focused on more ephemeral  forms. Farhad O Neill returns on form while John Mallon continues to help us focus on the beauty all around.

The Pat Finnucane Centre looks at the legacy of colonialism while a photographic exhibition of the life of Palestinian’s in refugee camps in Lebanon brings home the reality of war and displacement. Trócaire's focus is on climate justice and the inequalities of the erosion of different people’s way of life. 

If you go down to see the exhibitions (from 11am-7pm) specifically or linger before or after one of the discussions, you won't be disappointed. 

Coffee Barn Art

There are more visual art exhibitions dotted around West Belfast during the festival.The Coffee Barn  on Divis and Black Mountain will be exhibiting the Féile landscape artist competition entries.

Conway Mill’s Eileen Hickey Irish Republican History Museum will be open from 1-11 August (10am-2pm) with an exhibition of the outbreak of the Troubles and unique items made in prison from 1940 onwards.

The Kennedy Centre will host the final pieces of the portrait artists competition — you can pop in to admire and vote. Belfast Print workshop atCotton Court building in the Cathedra Quarter will host an exhibition of aquatint etchings by Margaret Ellis. Titled 'The Stones Speak', it is inspired by the standing stones peppered around the Dromara  hills. Aquatint is an ancient etching process which helps the printmaker make tonal images using sand, a blow torch and a metal plate.

An Chultúrlann opens its exhibitions on Thursday 1 August. If you are interested in food, cooking and Irish traditional crafts, Megan Luddy O'Leary's exhibition 'in the smoke of a little sugar' may appeal. It looks at our relationship to food and the culture of cooking, drawing on patchworking, Irish crochet lace and embroidery. Belfast artist Colin Drake’ has been inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s work and his  'With Hidden Noise' exhibition features three pieces made of multiple objects and looped videos.

Both An Chultúrlann exhibitions will run until 12 September 2024.

St Comgall’s will stage an exhibition about the 1969 Belfast Pogroms with verbal and video testimony - opening on 2 August.

Don Patricio 

The international reach of Féile is alive and kicking —  the Patrick O'Connell mural at the bottom of the Rock will be rededicated by a representative of Spain's La Liga and Jordi Penas, Museum director of F.C Barcelona. This is the brainchild of a new multi-cultural and international consortium including Fáilte Feirste Thiar, F.C. Barcelona, Visit Catalonia, Stevens and Associates and the EPIC Museum in Dublin which will bring about an ambitious program of events to celebrate the remarkable life of Don Patricio.

The rededication will take place at 3pm on 1 August.

Legendary lensman Prof Bill Rolston will be giving a talk at the Ulster Museum on 10 August (with museum head curator Dr Karen Logan) on his exhibition 'Drawing Support Murals, Memory and Identity' exhibition. Tickets are free but must be booked with the Museum directly.

Finally, if you have kids or grandchildren around, the best opportunity for some arts and crafts participation is at the Waterworks Summer Fun Day off the Antrim road on Saturday 3 August from 12-3pm. Have a lark in the park while being entertained by Féile Unplugged. What’s not to like?