Sam Fender will take to the stage in Belfast as part of his People Watching tour
- 28 August 2025
Thousands of music fans have attended the opening gig of this year’s Belfast Vital gigs in the south of the city.
Sam Fender is the headline act at the Boucher Road playing fields, supported by Irish singer-songwriter CMAT.
It is among a number of ticketed events which are expected to attract large crowds of music and sports fans, close some roads and increase traffic.
Just over a mile away from the concert venue, crowds of football supporters gathered at Windsor Park stadium for a Linfield match.
Grace and her cousin Frankie watching Sam Fender (in the rain) in Belfast in 2023
But Sam Fender fan Grace McKenna said she would have no issues getting to Boucher – she works just across the road.
“I will take me 30 seconds to cross the road,” she said. “I will not be joining any early queues but I will be going straight over once I finish work.”
She has seen Fender three times – would have been four had it not been for the Covid pandemic – and she was just hoping it stays dry for him.
“The last time he played here, the weather was atrocious,” she said. “The heavens opened in the middle of his set.”
Grace is a serial concert goer and went to see Oasis in Croke Park earlier this month.
She admitted the energy and excitement of that concert will be hard to beat, but Fender is still her favourite
