Popular summer festival Sea Bangor saved after £50m city revamp threatened cancellation - but fears of parking chaos as council warns 2025 event will look very different and 'be beside a building site'

But area officials have warned that it’ll be a different experience this year, as it’ll be taking place “beside a building site”.

They also forecast parking troubles throughout the city centre for around a week, due to the time needed to set up and dismantle the maritime festival’s infrastructure.

The Bangor seafront event regularly brings tens of thousands to the city at the start of June, visitors keen to enjoy the first weekend of summer in a family-friendly event.

But Ards and North Down Council officials wanted to cancel it, as a £50m regeneration project that has been on the cards since the 1990s is finally due to get under way this month.

The first part of the Queen’s Parade revamp involves demolishing Bangor city centre’s largest free car park – and as Sea Bangor occupies the area’s second-largest free parking facility, officials worried people wouldn’t be able to drive to the June festival.

On Thursday night (9th) a council committee voted to hold the event anyway, rejecting alternative suggestions from officials of instead staging either weekend music events in the city’s Ward Park throughout June, or a four-day Halloween trail through Bangor at the end of October.

The saved Sea Bangor will be slightly earlier, taking place on May 24 and 25 to coincide with a bank holiday weekend.

Officials warned that staging it will have an impact on traffic, as it will mean shutting the city’s second-largest car park for a week to allow for construction and demolition processes, on top of the £50m revamp already closing down its biggest car park.

But councillors were adamant Sea Bangor had to go ahead.

Alliance councillor Chris McCracken told Thursday night’s Place and Prosperity Committee that although the event will be taking place “beside a building site”, there’s a huge demand for it across the city.

“A very strong desire has been forcefully expressed by members of the public and the business community about the importance of Sea Bangor,” he said.

"We want Sea Bangor to become a [provincewide tourist draw] for Bangor in 2026 and beyond, to reimagine it and make it become that tourist driver.”

UUP councillor Craig Blaney pointed out that there had been a huge outcry when the idea of cancelling this year’s festival was first floated, including from the city’s Chamber of Commerce who feared the loss of such a popular event.

However Ulster Unionist councillor Linzi McLaren worried that bringing thousands of visitors in while the area’s two largest car parks are shut would be “a logistical nightmare”.

Council officials hoped a temporary car park with 88 spaces might be open by the time of the festival weekend and “should alleviate some of the problem”.

Officials also stated that Sea Bangor would be as similar as possible to previous years, adding that full plans will be cemented over the coming months.

The festival was unanimously voted through by Thursday night’s committee.