FLINTSHIRE'S iconic Duke of Lancaster ship is to play host its first festival in thirty years.

The Fun Ship Street Food Festival will take place on Mostyn's Llanerch y Mor dock, where the ship is beached, during the first weekend of September, with tickets to go on sale next week.

The owner of the boat, Llanerch y Mor Dock Holdings Ltd, is working to transform the site into a popular tourist attraction once more.

The company is in the process of setting up a beach bar ready for the event on September 4 and 5, which will include entertainment from Covent Garden street performers, a live wrestling show, funfair rides and visit from the RNLI lifeboat crew. Street food will be on offer courtesy of Cardiff’s Street Food Warehouse.

Tickets will be £5 each and will be purchasable on Eventbrite.

Organiser Antony Rowley once lived on the ship owned by his family's business.

He said thousands have shown interest in attending the event since hearing about it on social media.

“We can’t even keep up with the amount of emails we’ve had," he added.

The ship has been closed to public since the mid-1980s, but plans are in place to rent the site out for other events.

"It's really exciting for the area and for its economy," Antony said.

"We're hopeful that it could bring thousands more tourists to the area."

As well as the new beach bar, the company is also developing a new pier at the end of the dock.

Mr Rowley added: “There’s a lot going on at the minute. We’ve been working all through lockdown.

“We’ve spent well over £175,000 on redoing the dock, the sea defences and building the new pier and so on."

A former cruise ship and car ferry, the Duke of Lancaster was home to leisure and retail complex, named the Fun Ship, in the early 1980s.

Despite remaining closed to the public since, the ship has been maintained by Llanerch y Mor Dock Holdings Ltd.

Further details about the event and how to purchase tickets will be released in due course.