A Five Day Festival of Sailing, water activities, environmental, Drama Plays, crafts, food foraging and lots more a Festival for everyone based in Portaferry and on the shores of Strangford Lough Co. Down
Portaferry is preparing for a five-day Festival with covid restrictions in place they have adapted the programme which will include celebrating their heritage Sailing event The Narrows Series launching with the spectacular Bar Buoy Race with over 100 boats participating. The festival which will be the biggest maritime event to come to Ards Peninsula since the very popular ‘Galway Hooker Festival’ of many years ago. The event is being hosted again this year by Portaferry Sailing Club and is supported by Ards and North Down Borough Council will centre around the lough on the Shore Front. The Events will spread out from the Club to all parts of the town ensuring plenty of family fun for everyone.
The Club is running the festival we are expecting boats from all over the lough and North Down, Scotland, Isle of Man & ROI and farther afield. The boats will gather on Thursday and racing will begin on Friday through to Monday for competitive racing with ticketed taster sessions kayaking/boat rafting and coastal rowing to allow locals and visitors to get up close and witness the spectacular boats in action
The festival highlight is a unique opportunity for the public to engage on the water and to cruise the lough on the beautiful boat “Cuan Shore” and for Game of Thrones fans an opportunity sail past the original filming ground of “Winterfell” not forgetting 2 Game of Thrones doors one in Strangford and one in Portaferry. The new environmental boat “Citizen Sea” will be visiting and an opportunity to explore and sails on this beautiful ship
New event this year is two fantastic plays by Belfast production company Spanner in The Works performing “WHAT IF” & “BUTTERCUP” we also have family adventure day, food foraging/cooking demonstration, craft workshops, guided walking tours in Portaferry and Kearney Village.
To compliment the Sailing, there will be local food outlets promoting local produce The visiting public can avail of free activities PAST maritime and heritage museum
Heritage & ferry door trail, family fun treasure map trial, Nugent’s Wood national trust woodlands walk restaurants, coffee shops, hotel and fast food outlets are also gearing up for the Festival with special food menus to keep locals and visitors replenished.
The Festival this year due to covid restrictions and guidelines are limited in what can be delivered in comparison to other years, although different there are quite few new additional activities for everyone to sign up and try Eventbrite
Look out for details of all events, locations and times to be published and distributed all over the province in the near future. The festival program can be found on our exclusive website www.portaferrysailsandsounds.com or follow us on facebook & twitter – (www.facebook.com/Portaferrysailsandsounds) for updates and festival information on where to buy tickets.
This promises to be one of the highlights of the summer and will involve many volunteers and local business owners who will go out of their way to extend a welcome to all visitors whether they come by land or by sea.