THE organisers of one of the north's largest annual Eleventh Night bonfires have adopted a 'Disney' theme after building a huge castle out of pallets.
The Corcrain and Redmanville bonfire builders in Portadown, in Co Armagh, say the new novel design was drawn up in a bid to make the annual pyre safer.
Last year the bonfire was one of tallest built but after consultation with the community those behind the pyre have downsized on safety grounds.
Concerns were raised last year after two high-profile bonfires collapsed after being lit.
Members of the public were lucky to escape injury or worse when a pyre built in the Edgarstown area of Portadown fell onto a main road.
There were similar scenes at Craigyhill in Larne, Co Antrim, when the huge pyre also gave way.
Craigyhill, Corcrain and Redmanville and the Ballycraigy bonfire in Antrim are all in regular competition to build the biggest pyre each year.
Portadown based bonfire builder Andre Austin said there were concerns about the height of the Corcrain and Redmanville pyre.
"After last year, it was a fantastic year, and sort of went flawless but residents were very concerned with the height of our structure," he said.
"We have a four-storey maisonette beside us and standing on the top of our structure last year you were looking down on the roof of them."
"Obviously with the embers, and it depends on the night with the way the end's blowing....we said 'we can't go any bigger than this, we can't maintain having an almost 300 high pallet structure in such close proximity to the estate."
He said that after the bonfire was dubbed the 'Disneyland of Ulster' by some sections of the media last year, local builders took inspiration.
This year's bonfire is complete with turrets and a large central structure filled with flammable material while a large teddy bear has been made from bales.
"So we says 'right, well, if we are struggling with transport and we cant necessarily get the amount of pallets needed to compete, change the direction and steal the headlines again, because we stole the headlines last year'," he said.
"There was a lot more talk about how our show was and the size of our pyrotechnics," he said.
"We have flare displays, fireworks shooting off, the whole thing was like a family festive atmosphere.
"The whole talk was about the display, not the size of the structure."
At Craigyhill bonfire in Larne last year a crane was used to lift pallets to the top of the bonfire.
It is estimated that almost 17,000 pallets were used to build the structure, which dominated the coastal town's skyline.
When asked about Craigyhill a spokesman for Mid and East Antrim Borough Council said: "Council continually works with local communities and statutory partners to seek to promote safer cultural celebrations across the borough at all times."
Meanwhile bonfire builders have called for “calm” after their half-built fire at Edgarstown was set alight.
In a statement, the builders described the incident as a “sectarian attack” and blamed “politicians who spend the entire summer demonising and criticising us”.
Sinn Féin described the incident as “reckless and irresponsible”, while the DUP said it was “an attempt to raise tensions”.
