{"id":288277,"date":"2026-02-09T03:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T03:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/288277\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T03:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T03:34:12","slug":"popular-northern-ireland-venue-set-to-close","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/288277\/","title":{"rendered":"Popular Northern Ireland venue set to close"},"content":{"rendered":"

When music acts forget to add Dublin or Cork to their tours, you could always be reassured that you would be able to see them at the Boucher Road Playing Fields in Belfast.<\/p>\n

Over the years, several artists such as Bruce Springsteen<\/a>, Fontaines DC, Calvin Harris, the Killers, and Liam Gallagher, to name just a few, have played at the iconic stadium. <\/p>\n

However, in recent weeks, it looks like the days of bearing Irish weather to see your favourite performers will be coming to an end.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The land, which belongs to the Belfast City Council<\/a>, will return to its original function as a sports pitch. <\/p>\n

The area can host up to 40,000 people for a gig, and according to Sinn F\u00e9in councillor Natasha Brennan will be big enough for two full-size GAA pitches as well as a football pitch. <\/p>\n

While many are looking forward to the change, others are devastated by the news, as the venue brings a lot to the area. <\/p>\n

\"\"Pic: Instagram <\/p>\n

The Alliance Party are not on board with the decision, with their former Lord Mayor, Micky Murray, believing that these plans are ‘short-sighted.’<\/p>\n

‘It’s the biggest music venue which we have in the city. It’s important for attracting international artists,’ he said. While Peter Aiken, of Aiken Promotions, stated that there was an ‘ongoing need for a suitable large-scale venue in Belfast,’ and that by closing its gates to performances signifies ‘The end of an era.’ <\/p>\n

If this goes ahead, 2028 will be when the ball starts rolling, but nothing has been confirmed just yet. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When music acts forget to add Dublin or Cork to their tours, you could always be reassured that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":288278,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-288277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=288277"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/288277\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/288278"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=288277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=288277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=288277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}