A Story from Facebook | A Song for Belfast

This was added to the Facebook wall by Tracy Dempsey and I know how these things slip down the ranks quickly so I thought I would give it a more permanent home here on the blog...

"A song for the generous Belfastians who threw money in the guitar case for Mike & Dave - they made £250 in a day after we got their story onto the Nolan show and UTV. If you were one of the donators, big love from Brooklyn!"

Check out Mike Krum on MySpace

Keep your Eyes on the Prize

Sunday was my first experience of a Belfast Treasure Hunt. I don’t know if there has been Belfast Treasure Hunts before but I think there should be more in the future.

Tips for anyone participating in a Treasure Hunt:

1) If you are going with a team be sure to pick them carefully. Apparently maps are a difficult thing to agree on.

2) Unless the hunt goes through Victoria Square, the female members of your team could lose interest very quickly

3) Keep one eye on the road and one eye on the map. Bus drivers are not a friend of the treasure hunter

4) Keep both eyes on the prize. Nando’s is not the intended treasure.

Sorry Jessica. You may have noticed my team didn’t actually make it to the finish line. After a wrong turn we ended up miles off route and while trying to get ourselves back on course we got talking about food and next thing you know...

Anyway we got round a fair bit of it and it was great craic. We came across land marks that had only previously been found by jumping in a taxi late at night. Very well organised – a different way to see the city, and meet a few new people along the way.

Secret Belfast Meets

We had our second event on Saturday down at the Craftworkshop, probably one of the most insane spaces Belfast has seen in a while. It is full of local craft, has it’s own hair saloon, there’s cups of tea (which I accidentally served up for free), our local proprietress Emma Gilles and on Saturday a mish-mash of every sort of person you would expect to find in Belfast.

Belfast Samba Band started banging out their music at 1pm, stopping the crowds in their tracks from the outset. The Belfast Bus Tour got an extra treat that afternoon, as did the hoards of people that gathered round to listen to the beats. Thankfully the Belfast weather wasn’t true to form and we managed to stand outside without getting drenched, it was like taking a day trip to Brazil. That was the first time I heard the Samba band and I think I'll head down to Pigstock just to hear them again.

Jason Clarke and his band started up at 2pm and created a very different vibe. He has sold out gigs before and supported Paulo Nutini so he looked pretty relaxed doing what he did and that rubbed of on the crowd. He played for an hour and easily held the attention of the crowd for the duration. The groupies started shouting out requests and I could have easily listened on for another hour. For anyone that missed him live he is playing the Limelight on June 24^th.

Our DJ, Kitch, finished of the afternoon while the rest of us chatted and I stayed well clear of the tea making machine. The Craftworkshop dealer tried to flog on a mini Moped – guaranteed to go otherwise your money back. He didn’t succeed this time, but if you fancy it head down to 29 Wellington Place.

Great time...I hope it’s the first of many. Big thanks to Jason, the Samba Band, Emma, Kitch and everyone else who chipped in.

Joel