Council vow to improve Ayr Show after traffic, toilet & parking fiasco
South Ayrshire Council bosses say they were ‘overwhelmed’ by the 240,000 strong attendance of the International Ayr Show: Festival of Flight
Last updated 12th Sep 2023
South Ayrshire Council bosses say they were ‘overwhelmed’ by the staggering attendance of last weekend’s International Ayr Show: Festival of Flight.
The local authority has labelled the event a ‘roaring success’ but are also owning up to incidents which lead to furious backlash from the public.
Around 240,000 people flocked to Ayr’s Low Green over the course of the three day event, with bosses estimating a crowd of 150,000 people on Saturday alone.
The volume of people in attendance highlighted a number of issues such as parking, hour long toilet waits and longer than anticipated traffic queues.
Ahead of the show, the council warned there could be delays on Ayrshire roads of up to 90 minutes.
READ MORE: RAF Red Arrows close flight schedule for International Ayr Show
Watched air show through car window in traffic
However, comments left on a Greatest Hits Radio article on social media showed some people giving up and heading home after waiting in traffic for hours, a 3 hour wait from park and ride to the low green, and toilet queues so long it lead to people going in the street.
Russell Pearse was visiting with his family and disabled dad from Dunfermline, and said the organisation of the show needs to be better if it goes ahead next year.
He told Greatest Hits Radio: “Traffic to the main road and to the promenade area towards disabled parking was nearly impossible.
“It took us three hours to get there, so we watched some of the displays from the car window at a distance, which was a bit disappointing. We didn’t get parked until 4:30.
“The disabled parking was at the far end of the promenade as well, which felt like miles away from the site, and forced my dad to travel that far which I thought was ridiculous.
“There was a lack of toilets, there was urinals in the middle but ladies were having to use them because the queues for the toilets were hours long.”
'Toilets were blocked and had no water to wash hands'
Lana Black had travelled with her 5-year-old son to the festival and was also left feeling distressed with the experience.
She told Greatest Hits Radio: “ I left Dalgety Bay on the East coast at 10:30 and arrived at 2:15, it took me an hour to get from the parking to the festival and we’d missed a good chunk of the Ayr Show.
“I queued half an hour for the toilet, and they were blocked and had no water left to wash my hands.
“Thank goodness I’d packed drinks and snacks for the wee guy because the queues for food were all colossal.
“We enjoyed watching the Typhoons, and Red Arrows, but after we left it took ages to get back. I queued for an hour and a half just to board the park and ride. I didn’t get back to the car until after 9pm and I didn’t get home until midnight.”
READ MORE: International Ayr Show - Festival of Flight takes to skies over shore front
Council vow to improve after attendance was 'double' the expectation
Organisers of the festival at South Ayrshire Council say they considered the weekend a success and they weren’t expecting as many people to attend adding that the combination of the show and good weather could have resulted in the increase of numbers.
However, they have vowed to improve the event for next year to try and avoid similar incidents.
South Ayrshire Council’s Director of Strategic Change and Communities, Jane Bradley, said: “We’ve just had a fantastic weekend here in Ayr. I’d like to extend my thanks to all those who were involved in making the air show festival a huge success, and to everyone who came to the town to enjoy it with us.
“Friday and Saturday’s aerial displays were spectacular and the range of entertainment and activities that were on offer throughout the weekend were second to none.
“Like any event of this scale, there are some things that we’ll work to improve before the next air show. 240,000 came to the festival, which is double what we expected. We were overwhelmed by the amount of people who arrived on Saturday. We know that some people experienced difficulty getting into Ayr or had to wait for a long time to get out of our car parks, which will have been very frustrating. We’re also aware, again, due to the sheer number of people on the Low Green, that the queuing time for toilet facilities was a lot longer than we would have wanted.
“We’ll take all of this into account when we begin our planning for next year’s event.
“Overall, we’ve had extremely positive feedback about the event itself and we’re already looking forward to the 2024 festival. The International Ayr Show – Festival of Flight has been a wonderful boost for Ayr and has most definitely put South Ayrshire in the spotlight and highlighted the area as a destination of choice.”