Loyalist protests continued last night with Orangemen from Ballymena, Lurgan and Armagh joining members in Portadown for what were expected to be more low-key demonstrations than in previous nights.
Orangemen are to hold a memorial service at 2 p.m. in the afternoon for the late Joey Dunlop at the recently erected security barricades at Drumcree bridge.
As the sun set on Drumcree hill, a small number of protesters followed two bands for a march which began at the Protestant Corcrain Estate to Drumcree, where a few hundred supporters had already gathered.
It was expected that despite the large numbers, the gathering would be more restrained than earlier in the week, in advance of the memorial service.
But security remained tight in the area.
The 20 ft steel barrier erected on Wednesday was reinforced yesterday with barbed wire.
An army field hospital has been set up to deal with minor casualties.
Mr Robert Oliver, an officer with the Portadown District said there was an open invitation to anyone who wants to engage in peaceful protest at Drumcree.
He said the violence of recent nights showed loyalist frustration at the "un-elected quango" that was the Parades Commission.
"I don't know what people engaged in violent protest are trying to achieve," he said, adding that people such as the paramilitary Mr Johnny Adair, who has been at Drumcree this week, were not welcome unless they were interested in dignified and peaceful protest.
Earlier, Sinn Fein's Mr Martin McGuinness visited Garvaghy Road residents to lend his support.
Speaking at the Drumcree community centre, he said dialogue was the only solution to the current situation and that the spate of violent protests across Northern Ireland was damaging the Orange Order.
"They must be brain dead not to be able to see the damage it is doing to their own cause," he said.
Mr Breandan MacCionnaith, spokesman for the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, said the atmosphere was relaxed at the moment but that this would change over the weekend.
"By Friday night very few people around here will be branching out of the area," he said.
The Northern Ireland powersharing Executive tonight condemned the violence and disruption connected to the Drumcree stand-off over the past few days.
Deputy First Minister Mr Seamus Mallon and Enterprise Minister Sir Reg Empey said an American trade delegation led by the US Ambassador was forced to pull out of a visit to the North on Wednesday because of the disturbances.
Mr Mallon called for dialogue at a local level to resolve the Drumcree stand-off, claiming it was the ordinary people of Portadown and Northern Ireland who were suffering as a result of the disturbances.
He also condemned what he called the "cynical ploy" to exploit the problems in Portadown, the type of paramilitary thinking, and rampant sectarianism.