Young sailors are ship shape

Young people from all over Northern Ireland completed an epic voyage across the Atlantic.

They were taking part in the Tall Ships festival after sailing for three weeks from Nova Scotia in Canada.

Melanie Warden from Lisburn, who sailed aboard the Europa, spoke about her experience and said, “I’ve learned so much about teamwork, challenging myself and meeting new people.

The most interesting experience was when we hit a force nine gale, so the waves were about eight feet tall. Pretty damn scary.”

The event was greatly welcomed by all and provided an action-packed day out for families`, featuring live performances, street performers, acrobatic displays, a fun fair and last but not least a great fireworks display.

Around 800,000 people crowded to the city's docks and it was the biggest event ever staged on the island of Ireland.

Included in these numbers were 100,000 holiday-makers who visited the city especially for the event - and 250,000 people believed to have watched the magnificent Parade of Sail out of Belfast Lough.

The Headliners group was lucky enough to visit the event to get a closer look at what all the fuss was about as well as talking to participants in the race.

We spoke to members of the public about their day out as well a few wyllie pirates; all in all making it a fun day out for the whole group.

(Which consisted of myself on camera, Aaron Crossey as our sound man and Holly Foskett and Mary Laverty taking photos throughout the day.)

This was the biggest organised event that Belfast has ever seen.

And hopefully this will spark an interest in the city and its culture and bring people from all walks of life and races to Belfast to experience Northern Ireland for themselves.

This article was written by Chris Millar, 18, from Headliners in Belfast.