Festival plan for bridge’s 50th birthday

A TEN-DAY festival featuring fireworks, pipe bands, a parade of classic cars, a flotilla of boats and an aerobatic display is being planned to celebrate the Forth Road Bridge’s 50th birthday in 2014.

Members of the public would also be able to climb to the top of the bridge’s main towers.

The festival would start on September 4 - 50 years to the day since the Queen opened the bridge - with a parade across the bridge, including massed pipe bands, vehicles from the 1960s and floats created by local communities, It would also be hoped to organise a flotilla of boats on the Forth, steam trains on the rail bridge and an aerobatic display.

And the celebrations would conclude on the evening of September 13 with fireworks launched from the bridge and barges on the river and on shore.