The Context
Destination CQ BID was established amongst the business community in Cathedral Quarter & Smithfield in October 2016, with a focus on delivering specific improvements needed by local businesses and organisations throughout the area. The BID invests in and delivers projects to improve the local trading environment, drive down business costs and raise the area’s profile.
Young at Art is one of Northern Ireland's leading children's arts not-for-profit companies and home of the Belfast Children's Festival and Young at Art Events. From its base in Belfast's city centre, Young at Art coordinates not only an international festival and an events agency, but also a wide variety of projects that encourage children and young people under 18 to enjoy the arts.
Both of these organisations are rooted in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter, and have a staunch commitment to elevating the cultural offering in this local area. Cathedral Quarter BID was keen to demonstrate that the area famous for night time revelry also had plenty for families to enjoy. Young at Art were perfectly placed to provide the expertise and creativity to demonstrate this…
The Solution
In 2018-19, Young at Art (YAA) and Destination CQ BID brokered a new partnership to deliver synergy between the BID’s 450+ business members and YAA’s annual international Belfast Children’s Festival, benefiting the commercial development of the area, and supporting CQ BID’s vision to ‘Create, Celebrate, Invite and Inspire’.
For 2020, the partners similarly centred their free family activity during Belfast Children’s Festival 2020 in the Cathedral Quarter, but extended the partnership beyond the BCF festival duration to widen the reach.
In the 8 weeks prior to BCF, the partners invited families into the CQ area, and inspired them to both ‘Celebrate’ and ‘Create’ on business members’ premises. This served to connect families to the business offering in the CQ, particularly hospitality and entertainment, in turn increasing levels of awareness of and participation in what the CQ has to offer for families living in the 45 minute commuter belt around Belfast.
One of the central events of BCF20, was the new YOUR PLACE: CQ Belfast Family Fun Day, which was facilitated by A&BNI’s Investment Programme match funding. This project animated the Cathedral Quarter with a wide range of activities, positioned to drive families throughout the entire CQ area. The wide and varied range of family-friendly activities and events were free for children and families to enjoy, and CQ businesses provided bespoke family-friendly offerings on the day, with a trail map designed specifically to highlight each participating business and their unique offer; this worked to encourage families to stay in CQ and try the food and beverage offerings available in CQ BID member businesses.
Turnout for the CQ specific BCF events was high, with over 2,045 visitors to the Cathedral Quarter for YOUR PLACE on Sunday 8th March. Around 100 tickets were sold for BCF20 performances on that day also, and reports from local traders indicated strong positive engagement with their offerings, including food and drink revenues. An integrated marketing strategy ahead of activities achieved a reach of almost 700,000 helping to further raise the profile of the Cathedral Quarter as family-friendly with a strong, vibrant daytime entertainment offering.
“Destination CQ, the Cathedral Quarter Business Improvement District (BID) was delighted to build and develop the ongoing relationship with Young at Art and the Belfast Children’s Festival
Developing its 2nd year of support through the BID Events Fund; it has been fantastic to bring the wide calendar of activities to the area and provide a range of support to our cultural partners and venues within Cathedral Quarter. This allows our investment to go further than just one event but maximise the opportunity to showcase the vast array of partners and the wide variety of offering for residents and visitors.
By way of a simple anecdotal example; as a direct result of Belfast Children’s Festival, our hospitality sector in the area now have proactively sought to develop and deliver children’s offering in their venues; that will continue to grow and a great example of cultural events and activities having a longstanding business benefit.
Expanding the offering for children and young people, families and the cultural network of the area is a crucial mechanism in Belfast establishing itself as ‘Child Friendly City’; Young at Art have continued to develop and create a product that is incredibly unique and further develop the conversation particularly with the business community around the importance of an offering for all ages. In 2020 it is our ambition to work with YAA further and look to develop with City Partners a bespoke child friendly product.”
Gareth Neill, BID Manager, Destination CQ BID
“This continuing sponsorship relationship with Destination CQ BID is an important partnership for Young at Art and the Belfast Children’s Festival. It allows us to continue to open up and to animate the Cathedral Quarter, an area more noted for its night time offering, for children, young people and their families particularly over the festival’s family weekend. Thanks to additional support from Arts & Business NI’s Investment Programme we were not only able to increase the scale of the activity on offer over the festival weekend,but extend the family offering in the Cathedral Quarter area beyond the festival time itself and offer families engaging activity for the February ‘half term’ break.
Thanks to CQ Belfast and Arts & Business NI, almost 19,000 children, young people and their families have experienced high-quality creative experiences in the heart of the Cathedral Quarter, experiences that with stay with them for many years to come.”
Eibhlín de Barra, Director, Young at Art
