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festivals · Sunday 2 August 2026 · Various 
Donaghadee Summer Festival 2026
At Donaghadee town centre · Donaghadee, Co. Down
At Donaghadee town centre · Donaghadee, Co. Down
Donaghadee runs a season-long summer festival through 2026, organised by the Donaghadee Community Development Association with support from Ards and North Down Borough Council, spread across the town from 20 June to 9 September. Over 100 individual events are scheduled through the run, built loosely around the 250th anniversary of American independence and Donaghadee’s own links to that history, alongside the town’s usual mix of music, drama, sport and market events. Sunday band concerts continue through the run on 2, 9, 16, 23 and 30 August.
The festival programme mixes recurring fixtures with one-off events. Sunday afternoon band concerts run through August, and a harbourside drama production, The Harbour, is staged on 5 July and again on 16 August. The Ireland Flag Football League, hosted by the North Down Dragons at Donaghadee Rugby Football Club, runs on 8 August with an American-style barbecue, tying into the festival’s independence theme. Later in the run, a Summer Artisan Market and a horse relay both take place on 29 August, and the Donaghadee Ulster Fry World Championships, one of the festival’s better-known individual events, runs separately on 15 August. Hope Street TV drama walking tours, tracing filming locations around the town, also feature through the programme. With most events free and spread across the harbour, the rugby club and various town centre venues, the festival works as a loose season rather than a single weekend.
Donaghadee is on the coast road roughly 20 minutes from Bangor and 45 minutes from Belfast. The harbour and town centre venues are within walking distance of each other, and there is parking around the Marina car park and town centre.
Donaghadee’s harbour, lighthouse and the Sir Samuel Kelly lifeboat exhibition on the Marina give plenty to see between festival events. There is more to see in Donaghadee and across Co. Down.
Heading to Donaghadee town centre in Donaghadee? Down has plenty more to see. Read the Donaghadee area guide, find what else is on, and explore the towns and villages nearby.