Image caption The festival programme will include events, installations and performances in venues across Belfast

The Belfast Festival will go ahead this year despite the loss of funding from Queen's University that had put its future in doubt.

It will now be known as the Ulster Bank Belfast International Arts Festival and will take place in the city from 9 October to 1 November.

The Arts Council of Northern Ireland has given the festival £189,150.

Further funding is coming from Belfast City Council, the British Council and Tourism Northern Ireland.

In March, Queen's withdrew its support of around £120,000 from the festival that had been running at the university for over 50 years.

Ambition

The festival's director Richard Wakely said the support of artists from around the world showed there was "great support" for it.

Image caption Events are set be held at Queen's despite the university ending its association with the festival this year

The programme will include events, installations and performances taking place in venues across Belfast, including Queen's, he added.

"This reflects our ambition to be a genuinely civic event, working right across all our communities, all our neighbourhoods throughout the whole city," Mr Wakely said.

He described the funding pledged by both the Ulster Bank and the public sector as "essential to us".

"We are a mixed economy organisation, we rely on funding from the public sector and the private sector.

"They have all come together to work with us to create this new, wonderful event of arts and ideas."

Celebrated

The full programme will be announced in late-August.

Image caption Festival director Richard Wakely said private sector funding was "essential" to the event

Ulster Bank had previously cut back on its sponsorship of the festival in 2014, reducing the amount it contributed from £300,000 to about £100,000.

It has renewed its sponsorship this year, but there is no indication of how much it is contributing.

Queen's festival celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2012.

It began as a small event on the university's campus and managed to keep going throughout the Troubles.

It has attracted performers as diverse as Jimi Hendrix, Cilla Black, Michael Palin, Anthony Burgess, Jack Dee and Status Quo over the years.