Thousands flock to the Lowestoft air show 2011
Lowestoft Air Show hopes soar with final decision to be made next week
By MARK BOGGIS
Friday, September 16, 2011
5:06 PM
Hopes are high that the Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival will take off again next year.
A meeting of organisers was today (Friday) hailed as “very positive” - with a final decision on the show’s future to be announced next week.
The air festival directors and the committee met this afternoon to discuss their options during talks about the future of one of the region’s most popular events.
Among the plans being suggested for 2012 was a weekend show to be held earlier in the year, possibly in June.
After more than 380,000 visitors had turned out for this year’s spectacular, and £115,974 was collected in donations over the two days, the future of the festival had come under close scrutiny recently.
But with organisers having spent recent weeks looking into the viability of running a show next year – given the London 2012 Olympics would be taking centre stage, and with a likely knock-on affect of flight-path permissions - a final announcement is now only days away.
Speaking after this afternoon’s meeting, air festival managing director, Paul Bayfield, said: “It has been a very positive and enlightening meeting.”
Mr Bayfield added that “lots of good things” had come out of the talks, and that a final decision regarding next year’s show would be made at the annual gala presentation on Wednesday, with clubs and local organisations who volunteered at this year’s show also in attendance.
With increased charges for services next year, the festival committee have been re-assessing all the costs associated with running the show.
The committee has sent out letters to all the local clubs and organisations who work tirelessly behind the scenes at the show, helping out with collections and other vital tasks to ensure the smooth running of the two-day extravaganza. And in these letters was a proposal to the community groups suggesting a 50pc reduction in commission fees – if for example the weather was bad next year, and the subsequent drop in crowds could lead to poor financial results.
If the clubs and organisations back this option, which is underwritten by guarantee, it would help towards the committee being able to pay all its bills.
“This is of course one of a number of fallback arrangements, which together with a review of all costs, will help to evaluate if its is viable to go ahead with the 2012 air show,” a spokesman for the air festival added.
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4 comments
In relation to 'DaveG'. How can you block off the whole beach? So you get a family who is not interested in seeing the airshow, yet, they are not allowed to get on the beach unless they pay. It would never work as it is publicly owned. Imagine an airshow above your house, and you have to pay £2 to get into your own home. You wouldnt do it, would you?
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Shaun-Connor Wade
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Its not about making money, but every year we go through the process of complaining about making a loss, can we afford it next year? etc. When all it takes is a bit of common sense and it could make money for local charities as well as the local economy. The volunteers do a fantastic job and must get as depressed as i do when people do not chip in there little contribution. If ideas from them are getting ignored by the organisers then it looks to me that they like it to run at a loss every year, so they can look like they have worked a miracle to get it on again!
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DaveG
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Well the way I see it is to let some of us voluntary workers in that are prepared to give something back for the Airshow-to not only make it different from year to year but to have different things that would give it a status and maybe to be one of the best Airshows in the country like it could be-in my opinion its not all about money grabbers and how much is to be made from it-its all about the fun and the occasiion and what we the volunteers are prepared to give back-I asked for 2 buckets to do a collection on Kessingland Seafront-no reply-if that is the attitude from people that are prepared to give their time freely with nothing in return then what do they expect to gain?
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Colin James Watling
Saturday, September 17, 2011
380,000 attendees and we only managed to prise £115,000 from them. When is common sense going to reign and we come up with a way of blocking off the sea front area and charging people to attend. Could drop the cost back to £2 and still make more money.
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DaveG
Friday, September 16, 2011