GUEST BLOG: Getting to know Dolores Vischer, Creative Tours Belfast

Dolores Vischer set up a tours business in 2022, Creative Tours Belfast, specialising in music and arts tours. She is a qualified and passionate tour guide. Each week she brings tour guests into Oh Yeah. Here she tells us a little about what she does.

Dolores describes herself as a knowledgeable and passionate music and arts fan, but she has had a little performance experience herself. She has played the drums occasionally in bands, and the bodhran, sings and has written and recorded a few songs. She was also part of the Girls Rock School NI team for a while, putting on events, sings with Katie Richardson’s Cathedral Quarter Choir and is a member of the OTH Music Collective.

She says: “I sing and drum badly, but I’ll always give anything my best effort – and love to be a small part of something. Most recently, I had the pleasure of working with Katie and a group of women on the ‘Song in a Day Project’, supported by the OTH Music Collective. In more or less 24 hours, we collaborated to write and record a new song that was released on International Women’s Day – Éirigh (Rise Up).

You’ve probably seen Dolores out at gigs, usually up at the front, supporting the many local bands and singers whose music she loves!

“Music has been my lifelong passion, but it’s only since 2021 that I found a way to connect it to a day job. Before that, I worked for many years in book publishing, magazines and even newspapers, as a journalist, editor and publisher, before moving to PR consultancy and event management. For a short time, I also published a Belfast arts and culture magazine called In Belfast.

“I had thought for a long time that I would like to become a tourist guide, as I loved showing visitors to my workplace and relatives from outside Ireland around the city. I found out about a new ‘Green Badge’ tour guide training programme that was to run in 2019-20: applied and got a place. As part of the course, I had to develop and prepare a new Belfast tour. I opted for a music walking tour to highlight the very many great musicians Belfast has, across so many genres. The course ended in October 2021, taking a little longer due to the pandemic.

“Charlotte suggested that we run the new music tour twice as a pilot during the November 2021 Sound of Belfast festival, and that’s what we did. As it turned out, that was when the announcement was made that Belfast had been designated as a UNESCO City of Music. Luckily the tour proved to be popular with guests!

“After working from home organising online events during lockdown, I was ready for a change; so, I resigned and set up Creative Tours Belfast in March 2022.

The Belfast Music Walking Tour is our flagship tour, delivered in association with Oh Yeah. It runs twice a month, and one a month ends with a performance at Oh Yeah – often by someone who has been though the Scratch my Progress talent development programme.”

Two years ago, a monthly outing of a new Belfast Punk Music Walking Tour was added. Dolores also develops new tours for inclusion in some of the city’s many festival programmes. For example, the Cathedral Quarter Arts Trail and Historic Pubs, Cathedral Quarter for the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival team.

“Earlier this year, I’ve started to offer a new Van Morrison’s East Belfast tour. Just now, I’m working on a new Arts Across Belfast Bus Tour, to launch in July. This will focus on some of Belfast’s great writers, poets, actors, sculptors, street artists, painters, dancers, and of course musicians. It will run once a month, on a Sunday, as a half-day outing, making four visits to arts venues in each of north south, east and west Belfast.”

Dolores is also one of the guides on the Oh Yeah Belfast Music Bus Tour. You might have noticed her on the pop-up stand in our foyer!

“All our tours are about helping guests to enjoy Belfast’s great music, street art, written work and more, while exploring historic parts of the city, iconic venues and hidden gems. With a little social history added in for context. But really, tour guides are story tellers and I’m telling stories about some of our local legends – the people who make the music or art. And I love doing it!”

Find out more about the ‘Belfast Music Walking Tour’ and Dolores’ other tours at: https://www.creativetoursbelfast.com or email her creativetoursbelfast@gmail.com