Arthur Square, Belfast

Belfast, Northern Ireland lockdown sound recorded by Georgios Varoutsos.

“In the midst of a global pandemic, countries and cities have become literal ghost towns. Once flustered with sounds from human activities, this has now been overtaken from the subtle industrial, mechanical, and natural environment sounds. On Friday March 27, 2020, the 5th day of the official lockdown in the UK, I used my one daily activity of walking around the city of Belfast and quickly recorded various local or touristic points of interests with aid of VisitBelfast’s visitor map. Each of the soundscapes last two minutes because of the strict lockdown measurements set by the government, only allowing us to be outside for limited periods of time for essential grocery shopping, a daily activity, work, or health related.”

"Looking at the Spirit of Belfast, you will know you’re at a local stop for shopping. Most of the times there will be a performer or musician in this circle, grabbing the attention of shoppers, there will be your fast walkers, your slow walkers, those who zoom past you with their bicycle. On this day, nothing. Only a few instances of signs of civilisation."

Part of the #StayHomeSounds project, documenting the sounds of the global coronavirus lockdown around the world - for more information, see http://www.citiesandmemory.com/covid19-sounds