The Grand Family Festival

The Grand Family Festival in partnership with Phoenix Energy is a fun-filled festival, which will see the Theatre open its doors for a week-long celebration of theatre and the arts with over 20 unmissable workshops, activities and events suitable for children and families.

There’s a wide variety of activities for families to enjoy across the week including magic and puppetry workshops, ballet and musical theatre dance classes, origami and animationworkshops, family focussed tours and an SFX make-up workshop.

There will also be an Access Day to welcome individuals and families with additional needs to the Theatre including tours for people with sensory or physical disabilities, d/Deaf children’s workshops and sensory play sessions.

The festival will run from Monday 11 to Friday 15 August 2025.

For tickets and more information visit GOH. co.uk

In recent weeks, I’ve been grappling with some new stats from the Department of Health in Northern Ireland, which should sound a warning bell around HIV.

What’s really worrying is that this report shows that the public’s understanding of HIV - what it is, how it’s transmitted, how it’s prevented, and what living with it today actually looks like – is declining. In 2024. Decades after we’ve had effective treatment. Years after “Undetectable=Untransmittable” became a scientific fact. At a time when eliminating new HIV transmissions by 2030 is in our sights. The report is a highly respected Northern Ireland Health Survey and includes a specific section on HIV awareness in 2023/24.

Some of the statistics are not just concerning, they’re dangerous.

Let’s talk about the numbers

Only 87% of people in Northern Ireland say they’ve heard of HIV. That’s down from 94% five years ago. Among 16–34 year-olds - the generation you might expect to be the most clued in on sexual health –it’s as low as 82%.

Let’s sit with that for a second. Nearly 1 in 5 young adults in Northern Ireland don’t even know what HIV is.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg on basic sexual health knowledge.

• Less than 1 in 3 know that for people living with HIV and on effective treatment there is no risk of sexual transmission (known as U=U).

• Almost 1 in 4 still think HIV can be transmitted through spitting.

• Nearly 1 in 10 think it can be transmitted by kissing.

• Only 17% have heard of PrEP,