THOUSANDS of people enjoyed a new festival celebrating the river that gave Belfast its name as the city bathed in bank holiday sun.
The Farset Project hosted a programme of events from dawn to dusk on Monday aimed at encouraging residents to "reclaim their river and celebrate its contribution to the life of the city we know today".
Belfast - or Béal Feirste, the Mouth of the Farset - was founded at a settlement on a muddy ford over the River Farset close to a sandbank where it joined the Lagan.
Yesterday's festival explored the role of the river, now hidden beneath the city's bustling streets, in its development over the years.
"The River Farset was a vital source of sustenance for the first Belfast settlers and a key attraction for the many foundries and linen mills which flourished here, making Belfast an important industrial city,” Lord Mayor Arder Carson said.
Earlyon Monday, the Farset singers gathered close to the source of the river at Squire's Hill, by Cavehill Country Park, for a dawn chorus and got a preview of a new artwork which will be unveiled in the coming months.
Poetry readings, stories and a tour took place at Shankill Graveyard, beside which the river flows, and a new art installation designed by primary school children from both the Shankill and the Falls was unveiled.
A Farset-themed picnic was staged at Dunville Park in the west of the city and cross-community tea party was on at Townsend Street Presbyterian Church.
Then in Bank Square in the city centre an outdoor céilí, featuring a Waves of Tory performance, caught the eye of folk out and about enjoying the afternoon sunshine.
The focal point of celebrations was at Custom House Square, with a traditional 'Old Belfast Market' featuring blacksmiths and bakers, ahead of a concert, various artistic performances and pyrotechnics to end the event.
The cross-community collaboration between Cultúrlann McAdam Ó Fiaich on the Falls Road and the Spectrum Centre on the Shankill Road was funded by the Arts Council and Belfast City Council.
Arts Council chief executive Roisin McDonough said the festival was important in "marking the industrial heritage of the city of Belfast"
:: For more about The Farset Project see www.farsetbelfast.com
