Thousands turn out for Derry’s Carnival parade and fireworks display; Pix by North West Newspix
The Return of the Ancients festival has been extended this year with its largest ever budget of almost £400,000.
Derry City and Strabane District Council has said 100,000 people visited the city for what is known as Europe’s biggest Halloween gathering.
The city’s walls came alive with skeletons, nuns, witches, fire and music – otherwise known as Awakening the Walls.
Guildhall Square and Waterloo Place has been transformed into a harvest market for the nine-day festival.
The huge numbers has boosted the coffers of local traders as each year the parade gets bigger and bigger, attracting more tourists to the city.
Aeidin McCarter, head of culture at Derry City and Strabane District Council, said the record numbers who attended this year’s celebrations was a “ringing endorsement of the extension of this year’s festival”.
“We have been overwhelmed by the numbers,” she added.
“We have seen in excess of 20,000 people per night coming out for the Awakening the Walls trail and over 30,000 attended the Halloween night parade and fireworks displays, bringing the total figure to in excess of 100,000 people.
“It takes months of work on the ground to host an event of this magnitude but it is extremely rewarding for our all our council teams when the public give their backing to the programme by attending in such large numbers.”
Mum of four Gillian Walsh was in the city to watch the festivities for the first time.
“The Carnival parade was absolutely fabulous. You could see that so much effort had gone into the costumes, the props and the organisation.
“The city has done itself very proud. I will definitely be back next year.”
Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, John Boyle, hailed the celebrations as a resounding success.
“I would like to congratulate council’s festival and events team and all their partners on delivering the ambitious programme across Derry and Strabane,” he said.
“The record breaking attendance and the fact that hotels are booked to full capacity all week justifies our campaign to market the celebrations as an international event.”
The night ended with a fabulous fireworks display at the Quay’s, Pic by Derry City and Strabane District Council
