The main auditorium is a near-circular drum of 2,241 seats, with the stage set low and the seating wrapping around it rather than facing it head-on – a plan borrowed from Hans Scharoun’s Berlin Philharmonie. It opened on 17 January 1997 with the Ulster Orchestra, the flautist Sir James Galway and the pianist Barry Douglas, and the orchestra has been resident ever since. From outside, the giveaway is the shallow dome on top, clad in copper that is slowly weathering from bright metal towards the same green as the older buildings in the city centre.
The building
The hall cost around £32 million and was the flagship of the Laganside regeneration that reclaimed Belfast’s run-down riverfront through the 1990s. Planning began in 1989; the architects were the local firm Robinson McIlwaine. It sits at Lanyon Place, named after Charles Lanyon, the Victorian architect behind much of the city’s grander stonework, with the River Lagan a few steps from the door.
The clever part is the stalls. The seats down front can be removed to turn the room into a standing arena, which is why the same space holds a seated orchestral concert one night and a packed standing rock crowd the next. A smaller studio seating a few hundred takes comedy and lower-key shows, and there are bars and a restaurant on the concourse.
What’s on
This is the honest caveat: the Waterfront is a working events venue, not a daytime attraction. There is nothing to tour and no permanent exhibition – the draw is a specific show on a specific night, so check the programme before you build a visit around it.
When something is on, the range is wide. Alongside the Ulster Orchestra season, the hall has taken Van Morrison, Snow Patrol and Blondie, stand-up comedy, dance, pantomime and family shows, and it has hosted the Northern Ireland Open snooker since 2017. Ticket prices vary by event, so book through the box office or the official site at waterfront.co.uk rather than turning up on spec.
ICC Belfast and conferences
In 2016 a £29.5 million extension bolted a conference and exhibition centre onto the venue, rebranded ICC Belfast and billed as Northern Ireland’s largest convention centre. Two exhibition halls and a run of meeting rooms mean that on a weekday the building is as likely to be hosting a trade conference as a gig. Worth knowing if you are picturing a quiet riverside stroll and find a few thousand delegates on their lunch break.
Around the venue
The plaza between the hall and the river is public and free, and the riverside path runs right past it. St George’s Market, Belfast’s Victorian covered market, is a few minutes’ walk inland and worth timing your day around if it is a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Belfast City Hall and the main shopping streets are roughly ten minutes on foot.
Head north along the river and you reach the Big Fish, John Kindness’s 10-metre ceramic salmon on Donegall Quay, its scales printed with fragments of the city’s history. Across the water in the Titanic Quarter, Titanic Belfast is the obvious pairing for a full day out. For the wider city, see our guide to Belfast.
A final tip
Check the programme first – everything here hinges on there being a show you want to see, and the box office sells out popular nights well in advance. If nothing is on, the trip is still worth it for the riverside itself: the plaza, the Lagan and the walk up to the Big Fish cost nothing and take about half an hour.