Festival of Flight

The Festival of Flight is a yearly event at Newcastle Co. Down. It is a week long festival that ends with an air show on the Saturday and the air show usually ends with an appearance by the Red Arrows.  I go most years and usually the organisers have been fortunate with warm weather and blue skies. This year however, there was a question mark over the weather. Sunshine was predicted for the morning but heavy showers in the afternoon when the air show was on. The forecast did offer the hope that the showers would be isolated and some areas would remain rain free throughout the day.

I decided not to decide what to do. I would see what the weather was like on Saturday morning and if it was sunny I would go to Newcastle and if it was dull I would do something else. In the event the weather was fine, in fact it was a glorious day.

 

Click on an image to enlarge.

Kaz Hawkins
Kaz Hawkins

Kaz Hawkins provided some entertainment from the U105 stage prior to the show starting. I’d heard her on the radio previously and she sounded great but you have to listen to a singer live to judge their voice. I know little about music but sometimes on listening to a recording after hearing an artist live I’m left with the suspicion that the sound engineer must have been kept busy. That’s not the case with Kaz Hawkins. Hear her live and you’re left with the suspicion that when she’s in the studio the sound engineer will have time to do his paperwork and tidy the place!

 

 

Lancaster Bomber
Lancaster

I don’t think Id seen a Lancaster Bomber before. What you do notice with the older war planes is how sedate they seem to be compared to modern planes although the Lancaster was apparently pretty fast for a large bomber in its day. It is certainly an impressive airplane and you can’t see it fly by without thinking of what she and the men who flew in her must have went through.

 

 

Red Arrows
Red Arrows

The Red Arrows are ever popular. They do amazing things at four hundred miles an hour, sometimes only feet from each other. The suspicion is that they are last in the show because if they came earlier many people would leave when they finished.

You can see more images from the Festival of Flight 2014 here and images from Festival of Flight 2013 here.