Michael Barnes

Michael Barnes (31 October 1932 – 14 May 2008) was an arts administrator and promoter, primarily in Northern Ireland, where he was director of the Belfast Festival at Queen's (originally the Queen's University Festival) and the Grand Opera House, Belfast. Born in Peckham, South London, he became interested in theatre while attending Alleyn's School on a scholarship. Having also received a scholarship to Wadham College, Oxford, he took a first in history and, after graduating, became a lecturer in modern history at the University of Edinburgh. Whilst in Edinburgh, he took part in shows during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, but found that "learning huge dollops of script wasn’t all that appealing". In 1961, he became a lecturer in history at Queen's University Belfast, but continued to have an interest in the arts. The arts festival which would later become the Queen's University Festival was founded by a student, Michael Emmerson, in 1962, and Barnes quickly became involved. When Emmerson started a Belfast branch of the National Film Theatre as the Queen's Film Theatre in 1968, Barnes was the chairman of the film sub-committee. Belfast Festival