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Thousands set for Twelfth celebrations
THE County Londonderry town of Coleraine will become awash with Orange on Saturday as thousands converge on the town for the annual Twelfth celebrations.
Delegated as one of four flagship demonstrations by the Grand Lodge of Ireland, the Coleraine celebration is hosted by Macosquin District and will feature bands and lodges from Coleraine, Limavady and City of Londonderry.
The parade will be preceded by a carnival pageant, that will blend Northern Ireland's culture and heritage with its new found multiculturalism.
Highlights will include an Ulster Scots float, King Billy on horseback and Williamite foot-soldiers, Chinese lion dancers and an African samba band.
Londonderry's City Grand Lodge's spokesman William Wray said the Twelfth celebrations should now be seen as a great family day out.
"There has been a week long series of events in Coleraine exploring culture and heritage that will culminate in this Saturday's parade," he said.
"There is a real emphasis on the celebrations being a great day out for the family and there will be a family fun day in the field prior to the traditional proceedings
"The Orange Order hope to encourage families to come along and enjoy the day. We want to discourage the blue bag culture, we don't want to be part of that."
Speaker at the Coleraine celebrations will be Dr. David Hume, Director of Services for the Orange Order.
He said the Lodge had worked to maximise the positive impact of the Twelfth parades.
"We know that nearly half a million people enjoy the Twelfth and there is hard evidence that more and more tourists are planning trips to Northern Ireland at that time, to co-incide with the parades," he said.
"All of our parades are very important and we will be working with all the organisers to maximise the positive impact of the Twelfth parades."
Proceedings in Londonderry will begin at around 8:30am when the lodges and bands from three districts will parade in the city.
Waterside based District 5 will march to the Memorial Hall to meet with District 1 and 4 before returning to May Street to travel onto Coleraine.
Londonderry's district lodges will also parade upon returning from Coleraine.
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Weather for Londonderry
Sunday 27 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 13 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: South east
