With two weeks to go until Belfast city centre is flooded with green to celebrate St Patrick's Day, anticipation is building to see what the annual Beat Carnival parade has in store.
Taking on the theme "Voices of Belfast" for 2023, the parade is always guaranteed to bring colour, joy and life to the heart of the city for all ages to enjoy.
As St Patrick's Day draws closer, preparations are in full swing to make sure Belfast's biggest celebration exceeds all expectations as the Beat Carnival team double down to put on a show that no one will ever forget.
Read more: St Patrick's Day events and celebrations across Belfast announced
Belfast Live got a sneak peek behind the scenes at Beat Carnival's headquarters to take a deep dive into all the work that goes into designing, planning and running a large-scale event such as this.
Hugh Brown is the Creative Performance Director of the St Patrick's Day Parade with his role focusing on bringing together all the performance elements to present the "moving piece of theatrical carnival".
Hugh said: "The theme this year is the music scene that has had an impact on Northern Irish history - we are going right from the ancient horns of Ireland, working our way through to the traditional and percussion scene, then on to disco and its impact on everyone, the gay community in particular, and how it became a music space that was safe for everyone.
"Then on to punk, looking at all different aspects of punk, and then the rave and dance music scene that brought lots of people from all over the city together to dance and sow the seeds for the Good Friday Agreement."
Beat Carnival has been producing carnivals and outdoor spectacles for almost 30 years, creating large-scale floats, props, sculptures and costumes right in the heart of the city that can be paraded throughout the streets.
"There will be dance groups from all over the city coming together - traditional dancers, circus performers, acrobats and all manner of arts. Carnivals are the celebration of all art forms and we have a storyline that we think everyone will love," he continued.
"Preparations are always ongoing and behind the scenes, there is an office full of staff who have to look at the logistics and work closely with the city council in order to make sure that everyone is safe and everything happens as smoothly as possible.
"Then you have the makers, designers, costume team who plan for many months by working to the theme, designing what will work on the street. It's many many months of preparation that allow a carnival to happen and bring the streets alive."
Last year, it was estimated that 30,000 people took to the streets of Belfast for the first St Patrick's Day parade after the pandemic and Hugh said that they hope to top that atmosphere this year by giving "a spectacle that everyone will remember".
With 2023 marking the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the parade wants to invite a group of 24, 25 and 26 year olds who grew up in a post-conflict Northern Ireland to hold a special role in this year's celebrations
Hugh added: "We want those young people who took the first baby steps into this new Northern Ireland to walk with us as part of the parade and represent what we believe is the future."
If you would like to get involved, contact projects@beatcarnival.com or reach out over social media.
We caught up with John Quinn who was in the middle of creating the large-scale horn to add to their 20ft St Patrick float for the start of the parade.
"There is about six major floats that we are putting out," John said.
"Some of them are obviously bigger than others and they range in sizes and what they look like and what they do. Some of them are going to have people 20 feet in the air dancing."
John has been working freelance with Beat Carnival since 1996 and is an engineer by trade and spends many months of his year inside the carnival HQ creating unique structures and sculptures to be enjoyed by thousands at events such at the St Patrick's Day Parade.
He continued: "A lot of hours go into it and you wouldn't buy something like this off the shelf for the amount of money it costs to make it.
"I absolutely love it - I get to make something different every time I build something. I get to design crazy weird things and build crazy weird things and to get to experiment and build this stuff is a joy.
"It's that old saying, if you enjoy your work, you don't work."
To find out more about Beat Carnival's St Patrick's Day parade, see here
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