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The Southend Airshow, in aviation, later officially known as the Southend Festival of the Air, was an annual airshow held in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, in the United Kingdom and was held for 27 consecutive years: it was said to be the longest running seafront airshow. The airshow usually spanned a two-day period in May each year, and was the largest free airshow in Europe.[1]
| Southend Festival of the Air | |
|---|---|
 Southend Airshow - geograph | |
| Status | Cancelled |
| Genre | Air show |
| Dates | May |
| Location(s) | Southend-on-Sea, Essex |
| Country | U.K. |
| Established | 1986 |
| Most recent | 2011 |
The first Southend airshow was held on Monday 26 May 1986, as the finale of the Southend Spring Festival. 1986 was the only year that there was a fee charged to enter a cordoned-off display area, with adults charged £3 and children £1. In order to stop evasion of the entrance fee, 8 ft high scaffolding covered with nylon netting was erected. The star of the show on that day was a British Airways Concorde, which performed a double pass carrying 150 passengers whilst on its way back to Heathrow from a trip round the Bay of Biscay.[2]
Southend has attracted many aircraft and display teams including; The Red Arrows, Frecce Tricolori, Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, RAF Falcons, the Sally B Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress, A10 Thunderbolt, Hawker Siddeley Nimrod, Avro Shackleton, Hawker Siddeley Harrier, Vulcan, F117a, Vickers Viscount, Boeing 737, 747, 757, 767, the Saab Draken and a Catalina flying boat estuary takeoff and landing, to its show.
The cancellation of the airshow was announced by Southend-on-Sea Borough Council on 14 January 2013, as part of the austerity cutbacks by Southend Council; a saving of £130,000 was expected.[3][4] An unsuccessful petition was started to save the airshow.[5]
References edit
- ^ "Business as usual at air festival". 16 April 2010.
- ^ South end Timeline. "The Southend Airshow". Retrieved 26 August 2017.
- ^ "VOTE: Is council right to scrap Southend Airshow?".
- ^ "2019: LATEST: 2016 Southend Airshow still cancelled". 28 May 2016.
- ^ "AIRSHOW NEWS: Petition to Save Southend Air Festival | UK Airshow Information and Photography - Flightline UK".