In what has become a bit of a summer tradition for us, we took the very short trip to the Harbour House Inn in Newcastle to enjoy the BA Aerospace Festival of Flight. We always like to get down to the Harbour Inn early to ensure we get the very best seats in the beer garden to enjoy the best views of the air display overhead. As we live just a few minutes up the road from the harbour, we have been lucky in recent years to always get a good seat, and this year was no different. With the air show kicking off at 2pm and the highlight of the day being the display from the Red Arrows, here’s a few snaps of what turned out to be a great day.
Thousands flock to Newcastle for air show
This was the fifth year of the Festival of Flight and it is the biggest day in the local festival calendar in Newcastle. Tens of thousands of visitors line the beach, promenade and harbour area of the town in anticipation of a great aviation display. With live music, food tents and an aviation village in the centre of the town, this really is a date to put in the diary every summer to visit Newcastle. Unfortunately most years we only get as far as the Harbour Inn as the lure of booze and a BBQ is too much to make us go any further 🙂
The only thing that was threatening to put a dampener on this years event was the weather, but thankfully the rain held off and the day turned out to be another roaring success.
Fabulous air display warms up crowd for Red Arrows
The Red Arrows may be the main attraction of the Festival of Flight, but there is no shortage of wow factor from the supporting cast of air crafts. This year saw some new air craft in the form of The Lancaster, RAF Falcons, Irish Historical Flight, Mid Air Squadron and The Royal Norwegian Historic Flight. We may not be experts when it comes to the world of aviation, but we were certainly impressed by the warm up show with over 2 hours of flight action in the build up to the Red Arrows making their appearance. Our favourite display was certainly that of the RAF Falcons who lit up the sky in their parachutes. Here are a few snaps of the various air craft that entertained the crowd before the Red Arrows.
The main event and the Red Arrows
Arriving on schedule at 16:49 hours, the Red Arrows put on a breathtaking display yet again this year; a display you never get tired of seeing. Their was general excitement in the air as the Red Arrows flew by with families, kids and visitors of all ages watching on in awe at the display. The car park of the Harbour Inn quickly became packed, as everyone got their cameras out the take photos and videos of the Red Arrows doing what they do best – entertain the masses! Here’s some of our best snaps of them in action – we could have got more but we were just too busy enjoying the show, and tucking into a portion of chips 🙂
Were you at the Festival of Flight?
Did you visit Newcastle and the Festival of Flight this weekend? We’d love to know what you thought of the displays. Let us know by commenting below or connecting with us on Facebook and Twitter.
If you didn’t get along this year, be sure to put the date in your diary and take a trip to Newcastle next year.
Welcome to Pikalily, an award-winning food, travel and lifestyle blog. We are Nial and Helen, a happily married couple from Northern Ireland, who share a passion for food and travel among many things. We became parents to our beautiful boy Lewis in 2017. Follow our adventures through the blog.
