Belfast’s first time hosting Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann brought 1.65 million recorded visits into the city centre during an extraordinary eight-day celebration of Irish music and culture.
Footfall data for 2 to 9 August recorded 1,653,999 visits, compared with 874,925 during the same week in 2025. The figure was also more than double the 800,000-plus visitors initially anticipated.
Musicians, singers and dancers arrived from around the world for competitions, sessions and performances across the city. The Fleadh will return to Belfast from 1 to 8 August 2027.
There are crowded weekends, and then there is apparently giving the entire city centre a fiddle.