I recently took a trip to the vibrant city of Barcelona. The city is home to some of the world’s most beautiful architecture, including the infamous Gaudi works. The streets are a mishmash of ornately designed traditional buildings among zany futuristic structures. It shouldn’t work, but it just does!
Hidden down the cobbled streets are the most unexpected and coolest venues, used for corporate events, conferences, and meet-ups. When I returned home, it got me thinking about some of the cool venues that we have here in our home city of Belfast, Northern Ireland.
Here’s a list of my top 5 event venues in Belfast:
1. Dawsons Music Shop
Based on Royal Avenue, Dawsons is one of Belfast’s most popular music stores. We recently held one of our Get Together events (a fun meet-up for professionals across the tech and creative industries to showcase and get advice on new projects they are working on) in their top room.
The space is perfect for small meet-ups, seats 40 comfortably, and has a cool vibe to it!
2. The Barge
The Barge is a personal favorite of mine. I walked past it for a year and didn’t realize it was a restaurant! Situated on the Lagan River (beside the Waterfront), the boat restaurant is the perfect little venue for a small meet-up or private dinner to entertain guests.
The venue is very small, and they don’t open the full week (though the owners are great guys and very flexible). If you can get it, it is really magical!
3. The Nomadic
If you like the sound of the barge, but need a larger venue, The Nomadic is a great spot for a bigger event.
The Nomadic Ship (besides the Titanic building) can be hired out from 10-2 pm, 10-6 pm, or 6 pm- 12.30 am. Catering on board is organized through Posh Nosh (delicious and fairly priced).
I attended a product launch event on the Nomadic last year, and it was perfect as you could circulate the ship, and find nice places to sit if you needed a private conversation. The whole ship’s capacity is 130 on the main deck and 120 on the lower deck. A bonus of this venue is that you can arrange a tour of the boat for your guests!
4. Established Coffee
We didn’t realise that our local coffee shop, Established on Hill St (Cathedral quarter) catered for events either, but it makes perfect sense… great space, lots of plug access points at each table, and the smell of their finest coffee beans (it’s every tech meet ups dream).
The guys are open during the day, but you can hire the venue for the evening. (Check out their food menu as well, we are big fans!).
5. T13
Situated in the Titanic Quarter, T13 is becoming an increasingly popular venue amongst the technology and creative sector business community.
If you need a lot of space, cool urban surroundings and room to get creative, then this shared cultural space is a great option. In fact, this is the venue for tonight’s Friday Night Mash Up event (We are proud to be their official ticketing partner).
When it comes to food, there are 2 options at T13, the Rampage grill, and the Crane kitchen, which offers an amazing boutique Belfast menu!
So there you have it, those are just a few of the venues that I have come across that you may or may not have expected as an event space. Sometimes when we look at places to hire we assume that they don’t cater for events and disregard them, so it’s always worth asking!
I am asked for venue advice from a lot of event organisers, and I’m always on the lookout for our own events, so feel free to share some of your favourite venues.
