CQAF Creative Bursaries 2026/27 (Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival)

Twenty bursaries of £1,000 each, aimed at getting a new piece of music written and recorded. The festival is unusually specific about what the money can cover: studio hire, engineering, mixing, mastering and session musician fees, and also the campaign around a release — video, photography, artwork design, manufacture and distribution, PR, marketing and merchandise. You have to show a full breakdown of how the whole £1,000 would be spent.

It is open to musicians and bands based in Northern Ireland, established or emerging. The festival runs it in partnership with Belfast City Council under the Music Matters strategy. The call does not state age limits, genre restrictions or any residency test beyond being Northern Ireland-based.

Applying is deliberately low-friction. You send one email containing a single PDF with an overview of your creative practice — your work, your interests, what you are working on now — and the budget outline. Work examples go in the same email, either as MP3s or as links to online portfolios, audio or video. The subject line format is specified, and incomplete or split submissions may not be considered.

Submissions close at 5pm on 29 October 2026, judging finishes by 20 November and notifications go out by 26 November. The festival does not publish scoring criteria or name the panel, so there is no stated weighting between artistic merit, career stage and how convincingly the budget is argued. Given the fixed £1,000 and the emphasis on a full breakdown, a credible, costed plan is clearly part of it.