To ask the Minister for Communities whether headline acts had been (i) identified; (ii) approached; and (iii) provisionally secured, before the planned USA 250 concert at Belfast City Hall was publicly announced.

My Department was not the organiser of the event. The Ulster-Scots Agency, which was leading on the concert, has provided the following response:

“The only public announcement was the Department’s decision to fund the concert. The preferred headline act had been identified, approached, and had provisionally indicated availability prior to this announcement.”