‘Massive desire’ for Festival of Flight to take to skies again

26 April 2023

NEWRY, Mourne and Down Council has been urged to ensure that its flagship Festival of Flight event in Newcastle goes ahead next summer.

This year’s event was grounded by the local authority due to a lack of cash, with the move creating a wave of turbulence among a number of local politicians.

They had wanted to see the August spectacular — which features the Red Arrows aerobatic display team and attracts around 100,000 spectators to the resort and boosting the local economy by an estimated £2m — going ahead.

A number of weeks ago, council officials gave an undertaking that they will look to identify the cash to allow the international event to go ahead next summer.

The push for the festival to be reinstated after a four-year absence due to Covid and financial issues is being supported by aviation enthusiasts who are members of the Northern Ireland and Ireland Airshows organisation.

Jace Cambridge from the aviation group set up to celebrate and provide information about airshows on the island of Ireland said it was “disappointing” that the Festival of Flight would not be returning.

He said the event provided a major boost for businesses and the resort’s hospitality sector who have badly needed an extra boost since the global pandemic.

Mr Cunningham said since confirmation that the hugely popular airshow would not be happening this year, he has received hundreds of messages and comments from people expressing their disappointment.

He said the comments were posted on both the Newcastle Festival of Flight Facebook page and AirshowsNI Facebook page.

Mr Cunningham said that the public in both Northern Ireland and further afield were missing out while the Festival remained mothballed.

“With no airshow having taken place in Northern Ireland since 2019 there is a massive desire from aviation enthusiasts as well as the the general public looking to for events to attend with their families for Newcastle to bring back their annual airshow,” he told Belfast Live.

“The show has in the past attracted visitors from far and wide as well as having show previews on UK and European Airshow websites.”

Mr Cunningham said he believes the Festival of Flight has the potential for a “bright future” but Newry, Mourne and Down Council needs to show some initiative and bring back one of the most loved events in Northern Ireland as well as the most popular and biggest attended event in their council district.

Last month, several politicians expressed disappointment that the international flight festival would not proceed and that businesses in Newcastle and further afield would miss out on vital economic support.

South Down DUP MLA Diane Forsythe and councillors Alan Lewis and Henry Reilly were keen to see the event taking off this summer.

Ms Forsythe described the festival as an “iconic event” for Newcastle which took place against the spectacular back of the Mournes, with people travelling from near and far to enjoy it.

Cllr Reilly said that while he understood the local authority was facing extreme financial pressures, he thought the event could have proceeded.

“Given the festival’s potential to generate huge economic benefit and rewards for the local hospitality, it’s unfortunate that the Festival of Flight was not considered for inclusion in the council’s tourism events programme or even a scaled down version of it,” he said.

Cllr Reilly believes there is potential for the local authority to identify funding partners, such as the Peace Plus programme which, he explained, has a sizeable budget and has in the past praised The Festival of Flight as one of Northern Ireland’s best run events.

Cllr Lewis said it was “unfortunate” there would be no Festival of Flight this year, but welcomed a council commitment to look at an updated budget estimate for the Festival of Flight to be included in the 2024/25 tourism events schedule.

He said the local authority will liaise with its previous partners in organising the event to establish the increased costs associated with staging it next year.

Newry, Mourne and Down Council said it had assessed the Newcastle event and that based on those assessments, had decided not to proceed with adding the Festival of Flight it to this year’s tourism events schedule for the area.

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