Air show shatters attendance record

GLORIOUS sunshine and awe-inspiring air displays crowned a record-breaking year for the Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival.

An estimated 445,000 people lined the beach and seafront over the two days of the town's 12th air festival to enjoy displays by the Red Arrows, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and the Eurofighter Typhoon.

The wing walkers of Team Guinot and aerobatics from the Blades display team wowed the thousands who took advantage of the hot weather yesterday and headed to the seafront.

Paul Bayfield, managing director of the festival, said this summer's record turnout, with about 225,000 people visiting yesterday, would secure the future of the popular event.

“It will go ahead in 2009 without question. Looking along the seafront seeing all these people is amazing. They are all enjoying themselves and it makes me realise what an important event this is for everybody in the town - it's really quite humbling.

“Two years ago we had 425,000 people for our tenth anniversary festival and this year we have topped that, which is incredible and shows that the festival is still as popular as ever,” he said.

One of the highlights of the festival was the show stopping delta-wing Avro Vulcan, which was only granted permission to fly a month ago after a 15-year restoration project.

Andrew Edmondson, director of the Vulcan to the Sky trust which oversaw and fundraised for the £6m restoration, said he was delighted to see the cold war jet take to the air.

He said: “It's a piece of art in the sky. It's a beautiful looking aeroplane and comes from an era when we had the ability to make these kinds of brilliant things.

“It has stopped the show everywhere that it has displayed so far. It has been a real spectacle for Lowestoft. I hope that seeing the Vulcan will inspire young people to become interested in design, technology and aviation and show them that if you've got a dream and enough determination, then anything is possible.”