A further \u00a345,000 of support is also being provided to Gig Buddies, run by Black Box, to pair more adults with learning disabilities and\/or autism with volunteers to attend monthly events together.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\nThe scheme helps participants feel more confident in enjoying a night out in the city, with a helping hand from a buddy who loves music, theatre or dance as much as they do. Applications for Gig Buddies are open on an ongoing basis via the Black Box website.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Info events are also continuing in February and March for Bank of Ideas, inviting communities and individuals to put forward their own suggestions for events and activities they would love to see happen.<\/p>\n
Previous concepts which have received up to \u00a32,500 to make them a reality have included a sign language app, a sports day for those with learning difficulties and daytime music events for all abilities.<\/p>\n
Details of the full process, and how to apply by Monday 23 March at 5pm, are on the council website at belfastcity.gov.uk\/culturefunding<\/b><\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone deserves the chance to enjoy their interests and access to music, culture and the arts should be for all of us,\u201d said Councillor Ian McLaughlin, Chair of the council\u2019s City Growth and Regeneration Committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s great to see so much good work happening within the sector to improve access, trial new ideas and invite more people, of all ages and abilities, to get involved.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Teenage Kicks scheme in particular will really help support an age group which is under-served for things to do that foster their interests and provide an experience tailored to the age and needs.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cImproving and diversifying our cultural scene in this way also boosts our city\u2019s vibrancy and, together with initiatives like the year-long pilot late-night bus service in Belfast city centre, ensures we are offering a wide range of activities and events for everyone to enjoy.\u201d <\/p>\n
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\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.belfastcity.gov.uk \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Date: 16 February 2026
Category: Culture and arts
Belfast City Council is supporting a number of initiatives this spring to improve access to music and arts events in the city, and encourage more people to explore the city\u2019s cultural scene.
Teenage Kicks, a new grant scheme, will provide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2283893,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[412900,412901,412904,412899,412903,412902,315362,405739,36210],"class_list":["post-2283892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music","tag-bcc","tag-belfast-cc","tag-belfast-city","tag-belfast-city-council","tag-belfast-council","tag-belfastcc","tag-funding","tag-grants","tag-investment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Council-grants-now-open-to-support-more-music-events-for.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2283892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2283894,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283892\/revisions\/2283894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2283893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2283892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2283892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2283892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}