The Belfast Harp Festival, called by contemporary writers "The Belfast Harpers Assembly", 11–14 July 1792, was a four-day event organised by Dr. James McDonnell, Robert Bradshaw and Henry Joy, (proprietor of the Belfast News-Letter and uncle to Henry Joy McCracken), following a six-year lapse from the last Granard harp festival. Edward Bunting (classically trained assistant to organist William Ware), aged 19, was commissioned to take down the airs, which formed the major part of his Collection, published in 1796. The venue of the contest was in The Assembly Room, of the now unoccupied and until recently, Northern Bank building on Waring Street in Belfast (which was opened as a market house in 1769).