No date revealed for next year's Bournemouth Air Festival
Organisers have hailed this year's event a huge success but no dates have been confirmed for 2024
Despite a rain-affected opening day, hundreds of thousands of people still flocked to the festival to enjoy all the aviation packed entertainment on offer.
Established favourites such as the Yakovlev 50 and de Havilland Vampire FB.52 enthralled viewers once again as they passed overhead.
The Lancaster flew majestically over Bournemouth Bay on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, accompanied by the Hurricane and ever popular Spitfire, as part of The Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
And of course, the legendary Red Arrows brought their breathtaking displays to the sunny skies across three separate days of the festival.
Portfolio Holder for Connected Communities and Tourism at BCP Council, Cllr Millie Earl said:
“Bournemouth Air Festival once again did not fail to disappoint the crowds that came in their thousands to the town. From iconic favourites to new debuts, it’s been a fantastic few days of entertainment for everyone.”
Jon Weaver, Air Festival Director, BCP Council commented: “Once again, we’ve had a fantastic Bournemouth Air Festival and I’m always incredibly proud of the team who have worked tirelessly over the last few weeks to ensure its success.
“Although the weather on Thursday caused a slight setback, summer arrived in spectacular style which meant the number of people enjoying the festival over the last few days may well have got close to breaking our record attendance figures.
On future plans for the festival, Cllr Earl added: “No decisions have been made on the future of the air festival yet.
“In view of the financial pressures facing the council and the services we provide we are pressing on with work to explore how we might be able to sustainably finance the free event in future.
“We will continue to have meetings with business leads as part of our working group, established in July.
“As part of forthcoming discussions, we’ll be analysing the data from this years’ festival and looking at some of the ideas we’ve received from business owners and festival goers over the last few days.
“We will announce what next year will look like as soon as we can. We’re expecting a recommendation in front of our Cabinet in October.”