← All events
music · Sunday 26 July 2026 · 8:00pm 
Michael McGoldrick Big Band - Belfast TradFest Opening Concert
At Mandela Hall · Elmwood Avenue, Belfast, Co. Antrim
At Mandela Hall · Elmwood Avenue, Belfast, Co. Antrim
Belfast TradFest opens its 2026 headline concert series with a rare and genuinely large-scale night at Mandela Hall - Michael McGoldrick leading a 12-piece big band through a programme that takes traditional Irish music as its foundation and then pushes hard at the edges. McGoldrick is one of those musicians whose CV makes you sit up: founding member of both Flook and Lúnasa, long-time collaborator with Capercaillie and Mark Knopfler, and a flute, whistle and uilleann pipes player who has spent 30 years finding where tradition can go next. He hasn’t performed in Belfast with a project of this scale in over two decades, which makes Sunday the 26th of July worth marking in the diary if you care at all about live traditional music done properly.
The band on stage numbers twelve, drawing together musicians from the worlds of trad, folk, jazz and world music. Alongside McGoldrick, the lineup includes Donald Shaw - founder member of Capercaillie - on piano, accordionist Alan Kelly, saxophonist Graeme Blevins, and tabla player Parvinder Bharat, whose presence immediately signals that this isn’t a standard session line-up. Expect driving rhythms, layered textures and improvisation that runs wide and free, all grounded in the melodic language of Irish traditional music. The festival describes it as a one-off concert, and given the scale of the ensemble and McGoldrick’s history with Belfast, that is unlikely to be an overstatement. Doors open at 7:30pm for the 8pm start. The hall is standing only and strictly 18+.
Mandela Hall sits within the One Elmwood Student Centre at Queen’s University Belfast, on the Elmwood Avenue side of the building. It is a ten-minute walk south from Belfast city centre along University Road, or a short ride on any of the Metro bus services that run frequently along that corridor - routes 8, 8A and 9 all stop nearby. There is limited on-street parking in the surrounding streets, and it fills quickly on event nights. The Park and Ride facilities at Balmoral or the city-centre multi-storeys are more reliable options if you are driving in from outside Belfast.
Belfast in late July has a full calendar of its own, and TradFest itself runs until the 2nd of August across 40 venues citywide, so there is ample reason to make a weekend of it. There is more to see in Belfast and across Co. Antrim.
Heading to Mandela Hall in Belfast? Antrim has plenty more to see. Read the Belfast area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.