Spring Gathering Festival 2019

This year’s Spring Gathering will be in Botanic Gardens, Sunday 17th March, from 12-4pm. We will celebrate St Patrick in an alternative way, looking at the journeys people make today and celebrate the many cultures merging in our neighbourhood. The Bandstand area will come alive with food and roots music from around the world. At 2:30pm Bal Feirste will join us with a fun street ceili (or garden ceili…). Storytelling, sports activities, healthy living stalls and workshops for all ages in arts & crafts and placemaking will form a market place around the bandstand. Dr Eamon Phoenix will return with his popular tours of the area and Friar’s Bush Cemetery. All activities are free and family friendly.

The Spring Gathering is a community festival now in its 4th year and has grown from strength to strength. It is run by and for the community in and around Holyland and Wider University Area. It welcomes families and people from all walks of life to a safe space where we have an opportunity to chat over a shared meal or join in the fun and try something new. If you would like to contribute or volunteer please contact sophie.rasmussen@forwardsouth.org

The Spring Gathering is supported by District Policing and Community Safety Partnership and Belfast City Council’s Community Festival Fund. Forward South Partnership supports the local community to deliver the festival.

Forward South Partnership (formerly South Belfast Partnership Board) is an area based independent charity working to regenerate and sustain a healthy, happy and prosperous South Belfast.  We want to contribute to wider population outcomes by creating and sustaining the conditions for collaborative and collective impact to happen.  This means we usually have an enabling role, supporting and delivering coordinated work with local social and business partners.  We believe regeneration occurs by working collectively to deliver community, economic, physical and social development.  Within the Holyland area, we are working with 13 groups to deliver local projects which make a difference.

Horsey Hill and Community Green

You may have noticed a lot of work going on along the embankment at the bottom of the Holyland streets. The Community Green is expanding with the help from Department for Infrastructure (DfI) who owns the land. Conversations, community clean-ups and co-design workshops led by Forward South Partnership and local groups have taken place over a number of months, and the renewed interest and focus on the space has helped the community move the project forward in collaboration with DfI. The overgrown bushes have been cleared and fencing has been put up to keep cars off the green. Keep an eye out for developments over the coming months. Monthly family fun days have been planned for Spring and Summer. If you would like to contribute or volunteer please contact sophie.rasmussen@forwardsouth.org