Organised by Ards and North Down Borough Council in partnership with Food NI and the Comber Earlies Co-operative, The Comber Potato festival will run from July 2nd to July 5th. The event is now in it’s third year, celebrating the harvest of the Comber Earlies.

These famous potatoes, which have been granted EU ‘Protected Geographical Indication’, are special both because of the unique climate and geographic position of Comber – which produces the distinctive earthy, sweet and nutty flavour, and the expertise and dedication of the farmers who grow them.

The Family Festival day on Saturday 4th July provides the perfect opportunity to sample the Comber Earlies at their very best and will also feature a host of other culinary delights from local artisan food producers including chutneys, cheese, speciality breads, sweet treats and much more.  There will also be children’s entertainment and a parade, workshops, petting farms and arts & crafts.

Other entertainment during the festival includes a town Tractor Run and BBQ and a Sunday Thanksgiving Service.

More Details from Ards Visitor Information Centre on 028 9182 6846.

Click here for details of how to enter the Gala 10 Mile Road Race – this event gets bigger and better every year, it’s a lovely seanic course and everyone is welcome.
Click here for the online entry details

As always we’d like to thank all the businesses which sponsor Portaferry Gala Week – without your support the festival simply couldn’t take place. While we try to contact as many as possible each year, we always have people contact us over Gala Week wanting to get involved.

If you’d like to Sponsor an event, Advertise in our Programme or Advertise on Ferry FM, now is the time to get in touch.

Email us info@portaferrytown.com or call the Gala Office on 028-427-98181

Just what you need on a rainy old Bank Holiday Weekend, some memories of a sunny summer night back in 1996.

Can you name the singers?

Some footage from 1995 of Float Day in Portaferry Town, this was the first year of Ferry FM, broadcasting Gala News and Information across the lough.

When the Ferry FM site started “broadband” was a pipe dream for Portaferry, as a result the pictures from 1995 to 2004 were kept to small file sizes to allow people to download them easily – we’ve now started to re-encode a lot of the video and to resize the pictures, yes, it’ll take a while, but keep an eye on the “Picture Archive” section over the coming month and you’ll see a difference in the earlier Gala sections.

Fancy Dress 2005

A very Happy Easter everyone from all the “Gala Crew”, if you do get to put your feet up over the break, have a look back at Gala Week over the years with these compilations from Harry Fitzsimons.
(Please Note: These are hosted on facebook, so you’ll need to be a member to view them)

Gala Compilation One

Gala Compilation Two

Please do take time to read the Plan and please send your replies.
Gala is an important part of the tourism calendar – don’t let it be left out of future planning.
Please click here.