Against Adversity

Conflict and adversity forms the inspiration behind the programme running in collaboration between HardRain and Hashtag throughout 2025.

Presenting four distinct performances, it combines musicians from two ground-breaking ensembles both formed in 2013, and based in Belfast and Warsaw. Together they explore challenging concepts by featuring the most cutting-edge composers from the respective countries.

 

Songs of Travel

This programme aims to raise awareness of climate change and foster empathy for migration through music. The interactive graphic novel paints a vivid picture of the topic of migration through the personal stories of five individuals as they fled their troubled homelands of Syria, Vietnam, Italy, Turkey and Ukraine in search of new beginnings.

 

Pierrette

This Northern Irish/Polish programme for International Women’s Day features some of the most original voices in contemporary music. With challenging, provocative, and political subjects, Hard Rain and Hashtag merge together to explore and execute compelling works by composers with whom they independently enjoy close collaborations.

 

AżTak Festival

Hard Rain and Hashtag ensembles join forces at the AżTak Festival. Highlighting the festival’s theme for 2025 of Contemplation, they perform works by Greg Caffrey, Amy Rooney and Ryan Molloy, all of whom bring a distinctly reflective and personal process to their music.

 

Peaceline Perspectives in association with Warsaw Autumn

Peaceline Perspectives: Voices from a Divided City features highly evocative pieces by Northern Irish composers from the last decade. The music is interwoven with voices and soundscapes inspired by Belfast’s Peaceline which separates the nationalist and loyalist communities.