Festival of Flight to be expanded to two days

Festival of Flight to be expanded to two days

16 December 2015

THE Mournes could become the venue for Ireland’s biggest air show as plans are unveiled to more than double the size of the existing Festival of Flight.

Newry, Mourne and Down Council wants to transform the existing Festival of Flight, based in Newcastle, by adding a second day of aerobatics and associated events based around Carlingford Lough.

Warrenpoint is being proposed as the base for the second day of events, which would have a cross-border aspect thanks to the involvement of Louth County Council.

The Festival of Flight is Newry, Mourne and Down Council’s flagship tourism event regularly attracting over 70,000 visitors to Newcastle and, according to council figures, generating an “economic impact” of £2.3m.

Now the council wants to expand the festival into a two-day event which will double the cost to £240,000. The ratepayer will pay £140,000 while the remainder will be made up of grants of £25,000 each from Tourism NI and Louth Council, £38,000 from Kilkeel-based BE Aerospace and £6,000 each from the chambers of commerce in Newcastle and Warrenpoint.

On the Saturday the festival will continue in Newcastle with the regular land-based features such as the aviation village, food market and military vehicle clubs. However, it is proposed that the air show will increase in length to become a two hour event.

The next day the festival will move to the skies above Carlingford where the air show will be centred around Warrenpoint and the narrow nature of the inlet means there will be spectacular vantage points along the shore and on the Mourne and Cooley mountains on either side.

There will be musical events and the festival will conclude with a giant fireworks display.

The proposal was presented to the council’s Enterprise, Regeneration and Tourism Committee on Monday afternoon and will now be discussed, along with other proposed events, at a special meeting.

Portrush already stages a two-day event and last year attracted the Red Arrows on both days which drew massive crowds to the Antrim resort.

However, it is accepted by air show experts that Newcastle provides one of the best venues for an air show with its ideal concave coastal shape lending itself to maximum audience enjoyment of the event.

The proposed air show in Carlingford would be offer a different experience for the observer, given the high mountains so close to the lough on either side an the long narrow expanse of water.

Newcastle councillor Willie Clarke described the Festival of Flight proposal as a very exciting development which would lift the event to a different level and has the potential to be one of the best festivals of its kind in Ireland.

“This potentially makes the festival a much bigger package with the links with Louth and the opportunity to have a much bigger economic buy-in from across the area,” he said.

“We have the potential of attracting people from Dublin which is not that far to travel to Carlingford Lough and the potential of having more people staying in the area for the weekend to take in both days of the festival.

“Added to the festival, next year in the International Year of Food so there is a great opportunity to link the Festival of Flight with food fairs and other events which gives us the ability to generate a great economic spin off for the area,” said Mr Clarke.