Making Life Better Together

Belfast Festival of Learning. 23rd -29th March 2020

Welcome to the fifth annual Belfast Festival of Learning running March 23-29.

The Belfast Festival of Learning is a key feature in the city’s plan to build Belfast as a learning city for all, in line with the commitments made to UNESCO, (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), when Belfast became a member of the UNESCO Global Network of Learning Cities in 2018.

The festival helps to deliver on the key commitments we made to celebrate and promote learning, to make it accessible to everyone, by removing barriers to learning and to make it attractive and relevant for all ages and life stages – across all parts of the city.  The festival is a great example of how all this can be achieved.  Have a look at the programme and you will be amazed by the range of free, fun and thought-provoking events on offer across the city during the festival week.

The festival programme reflects the great variety of reasons why people choose to learn – for quality of life, for education, employment and to build positive relationships; it is this wide spectrum of learning that can help build Belfast as a city that is resilient, healthy, age friendly, family friendly, diverse and harmonious, sustainable and a city that works for everyone!

The focus this year is on how learning can be used to build resilience for individuals, communities and for the city.  The challenges of modern day life can take a toll on our quality of life and we need to have opportunities to build resilience and find the tools to enjoy life.

Together we can build a learning city for all, we need to work with partners across the city and beyond.  Belfast is also part of the Irish Network of Learning Cities and as such we have the opportunity to share and learn from the experiences of Cork and Limerick, who have been awarded the UNESCO Learning Cities award, Dublin and Derry & Strabane learning cities who have also joined the Global Network of Learning Cities.  We are currently building alliances with our neighbouring learning cities in Scotland, England and Wales.

Why not be part of Belfast Learning City? Try something new during the week long festival running March 23-29, you never know what joy it may inspire in you and where it may take you in life.

Download the 2020 Belfast Festival of Learning Programme



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