Short answer: Golden Coast Holiday Park at Woolacombe is flying 150 synchronised drones instead of fireworks on Saturday 7 November. The park opens at 4pm and the display is at about 7pm, lasting around twelve minutes. It is free, there is no booking, and it is open to everyone rather than just park guests.
A live drone show rather than a firework display: 150 synchronised drones flying formations over Golden Coast Holiday Park at Woolacombe. The park is billing it as the first thing of its kind in North Devon, and the whole premise is in the strapline on the poster — all the wonder, none of the bangs.
It lasts around twelve minutes, which is about the length of a decent firework display, and it happens in near silence.
Animal welfare and the environment, stated plainly by the park: drone displays do not produce the smoke, debris and loud bangs that fireworks do, and those are what distress livestock, wildlife and pets. On a coast with a lot of farmland immediately behind it, that is not an abstract argument.
This is the one. If your dog cannot cope with the 5th, this is a night out in Devon you can take them to. Dogs are welcome and there is nothing to bang. For the rest of that fortnight, the usual advice still applies — walk them before dark and let them hide where they choose.
The park has flagged it as sensory friendly. Sudden unpredictable noise is the part that causes the problem with fireworks, and a drone show removes it entirely while keeping the spectacle. There is very little else in Devon that offers that.
Also flagged on the poster, and a genuine consideration in this part of North Devon in November.
The Old Mill pub on site is open from midday and is open to everyone, with food served through the evening and live music and family entertainment from 4pm. The entertainment continues in there after the drones. The Beach House on the park is for guests and owners only.
Woolacombe has both this year, which nowhere else in Devon does. The conventional Woolacombe Bonfire and Fireworks Night is on Thursday 5 November at the Meadow Playing Fields on South Street — gates 5pm, fireworks 7.30pm, £7.70 adult, £6.60 child, £25.30 family, with free parking at the beach car park from 5pm.
Golden Coast sits on Station Road on the edge of Woolacombe. There is no railway at Woolacombe — the Tarka Line from Exeter ends at Barnstaple and the bus runs out along the coast from there. The lanes into the village are narrow and unlit, and a free event with no ticket cap means arriving early is sensible.
Check with the park before travelling. Drone displays are weather dependent in a way fireworks are not: high wind grounds them.
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