Tide and Turf Portavogie

Tide and Turf Portavogie is a free harbourside food festival celebrating the local seafood and farming that define the Ards Peninsula, taking place at Portavogie Harbour on Saturday, 12 September 2026 from noon to 5pm. Organised by Ards and North Down Borough Council as part of its Taste Autumn programme, the festival puts the working fishing port itself at the centre of the day rather than staging the food away from where it actually lands.

What to expect

Portavogie is one of only three fishing harbours left on the Northern Ireland coast, alongside Kilkeel and Ardglass, and the festival is built around that working quay rather than a generic marquee event. Expect live cooking demonstrations using the day’s landed seafood, stalls selling fresh and prepared fish and shellfish straight from local boats, and produce from the farmland behind the harbour that supplies the beef and other ingredients the festival’s name refers to. Live music runs through the afternoon alongside family activities. The event is funded in part through DAERA’s Northern Ireland Regional Food Programme, reflecting its role in promoting the region’s fishing and farming economy rather than purely as a visitor attraction. Organisers ask visitors to use public transport where possible and to be mindful of the working harbour, and note that only official event drones are permitted over the site during the festival.

Getting there

Portavogie is on the east coast of the Ards Peninsula, about forty minutes from Belfast and fifteen minutes south of Newtownards by road. The harbour is at the centre of the village, and parking is limited on festival days given the working quay, so organisers encourage car-sharing or bus travel where possible.

While you’re in Portavogie

Portavogie’s harbour lands nephrops that supply scampi to menus across the north, and the fleet has fished this stretch of coast since Scottish families settled here in the 1750s. There is more to see in Portavogie and across Co. Down.

Good to know

• Date and time: Saturday, 12 September 2026, noon to 5pm
• Venue: Portavogie Harbour
• Free to attend
• Part of Ards and North Down’s Taste Autumn programme
• No-drone zone except official event drones; public transport encouraged