The streets of Londonderry are expected to be flooded with more than 30,000 people as the city’s annual four-day Halloween festival draws to a close on Tuesday. The event culminates in the Halloween parade and fireworks finale, with organisers claiming that the festival is the largest Halloween event in Europe. Aideen McCarter of the council said that the popularity of the event spreads right across the world. She added that the council is anticipating that over the four days of the event, more than 130,000 people would have come to the city, with around 100 drones participating in a display above the River Foyle.
Derry’s Halloween festivities have grown to a global renown since the first official Halloween celebrations in 1986, and it is now regarded as among the world’s premier destinations for Halloween. The biggest night of the year in the city brings in thousands of people; the vast majority of both young and old are in costume and fancy dress. Mario Marz, who runs his own psychic academy in Salem, Massachusetts, is among the international visitors to Derry for the festival.
Marz’s wife has family from Derry, and he loves the city. He said that Salem has its own celebrations with the Haunted Happenings Parade, which draws pretty big crowds, but this is the biggest festival in Europe, and he is so looking forward to it. The festival was well received, and tens of thousands of people attended a plethora of Halloween events, including Awakening the Walls, which captured the myth and magic of the Halloween story through music, pyrotechnics, and illumination on the city walls and ‘Rise – Ring of Fire’ at Ebrington Square.
Traffic disruption was expected in the city centre as the festival drew to a close. The parade began at 19:00 GMT on Tuesday and was followed by the fireworks display at 20:30, with the Peace Bridge being closed from 19:00 until 20:45. The council anticipated that this year’s event would be bigger and better than ever, with the hope that it could be enjoyed safely amidst the pandemic
Read the full article from The BBC here: Read More