60,000 TURN OUT FOR ARMED FORCES DAY ‘LANDING’ AT ARDS AIRFIELD!

ARMED FORCES DAY 2025 LANDS AT ARDS AIRFIELD!

Wow! What a day…The sun was shining and around 60,000 people attended Armed Forces Day on Saturday at Newtownards Air Field. The event kindly hosted by Ards and North Down Council, was a fantastic family day to celebrate and support the wonderful work of our Armed Forces Community.
The day kicked off at 10.30am with a parade of over 400 serving personnel, reservists, veterans and cadets from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, The parade culminated at Ards Airfield when the event was officially opened with a Drumhead Service by members of the local churches followed by the official flag raising by Deputy Lord Lieutenant of Co Down Lt Col (retired) Johnny Rollins. The event had a real family festival feel, with many stalls throughout the site, including demonstrations, technical challenges, funfair and lots of tasty food stalls.
Without doubt one of the highlights were the from the skies about the airfield, when the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) parachute team, The Falcons arrived in a mist of red onto the arena area, much to the delight of everyone around. Later in the afternoon the world famous RAF’s aerobatic superstars The Red Arrow flew across the site doing amazing stunts in the sky with the famous red, white and blue smoke from their tails trailing in their wake.
The event due to a close with beautiful musical beating retreat at 3.30pm and wrapped up for another year shortly afterwards.