Seaside Screening in Bangor

Continuing the partnership between the Digital Film Archive and Open House Festival, Seaside Revival Vintage Festival recently showcased DFA footage at its outdoor cinema event in Ward Park on Friday 30th July. The audience were treated to a variety of beautiful clips including excerpts from the Dr. Frank McDowell collection, the Campbell collection, Northern Ireland Tourist Board films and UTV. The event was funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and is part of a wider project celebrating the history and heritage of Bangor. 

Explore some of the footage used for the montage here on the Digital Film Archive, including: breath-taking diving at the Pickie Pool in the 1930’s from Irish Travelogue.

All the pomp and circumstance of a royal visit in the 1950s in Colour Rushes from the Northern Ireland Tourist Board.

A Year with the McDowell Family:1963 includes great footage of the bandstand and Skippingstone Beach -sometimes called Skipperstone Beach but we will let the locals argue over that one.

Let’s Look at Ulster: Seaside Towns shows the changing face of Bangor and other local resorts in the 1970s.

You can find a link to the trailer for the event here. The clip is from the BAI project, which has recently digitised material from the UTV archive including cine film from the 1950s and 60s.