Police report '˜outbreak of stetsons, denim and leather chaps in Portadown town centre'

Hundreds of people enjoyed the Country Comes To Town Heritage Festival Day. And according to the PSNI Craigavon Facebook page, the event passed off well, with “no issues at all” - except some “confused townies” and too many renditions of Nathan Carter’s Wagon Wheel song!

“Well after 473 renditions, the next person to play Wagon Wheel is getting lifted for ‘crimes against my ears’. Nathan Carter is no longer invited to our Christmas do,” the post said.

“We’ve had a couple of incidents where we had to assist ambulance getting to people who had taken ill and a couple of missing people who were quickly reunited with family. Other than that, there’s been no issues at all. A lot of happy faces, a lot of confused townies, and an uncharacteristically easy day for us!

“Our crew dipped out of town for a bit to help detectives with a house search, another crew headed to Shamrock Park to help with ‘Country comes to town part 2; Portadown v Ballymena’. Unfortunately, country got the better of town on this occasion.”

Alongside a picture of a small pony wearing a police officer’s hat, the post added: “Officer short stuff here has just gone, the town centre will be reopened fully shortly, and we’ll be off to try and get country music out of our head. Until next time...”

The Facebook page, well known for its tongue-in-cheek content, had earlier reported “an outbreak of stetsons, denim and leather chaps in Portadown town centre.”

“Country Comes To Town has well and truly kicked off. There are commercial stalls, plenty of food and drink (we’re sampling it all for you, no complaints so far) and a lot of old cars, tractors and steam engines,” it said.

Officers also posted a picture of a PSNI tractor, describing it as the force’s “Fermanagh response vehicle”.