THE seventh annual Bournemouth Air Festival has taken to the skies.

After dark will see special flying displays and the Wave 105-hosted Night Air concerts, which will prove to be a huge draw.

The live music event takes place over two nights and features a host of big names and rising stars along with spectacular dusk flying demonstrations to light up the twilight skies.

New for the line-up of this year’s Night Air, sponsored by Corona, are the Blades performing a sunset display Friday and Saturday night (and Sunday daytime).

The lead singer of a 1980s pop group is the musical high note this weekend.

Bournemouth Air Festival organisers have struck gold to get Spandau Ballet singer Tony Hadley to perform at the Wave 105 Corona Music Stage for Night Air at the Piers. One of pop music’s greatest vocalists, with a singing career spanning four decades, Tony Hadley will be performing on Saturday, which will surely delight all Spandau Ballet fans.

Drum and bass chart-toppers Sigma will perform their summer anthem Nobody to Love, and hotly-tipped new single Changing during the weekend.

They will play on the Friday night along with Rizzle Kicks, Rixton, Loveable Rogues and Alexa Goddard.

Following their hugely popular performance back in 2012, the pop-duo Rizzle Kicks will once again be taking to the stage tonight at Boscombe Pier.

The boys are set to perform new single Tell Her and their smash hits including Down With The Trumpets, Mama Do The Hump and When I Was A Youngster.

Joining Rizzle Kicks for Friday evening’s spectacular Night Air line-up is new pop boy band Rixton and the ever likeable cheeky chappies from Britain’s Got Talent, Loveable Rogues. There is also more new pop acts with singer, Alexa Goddard who hails from Hampshire.

Keith Penny, Wave 105’s event director says: “Night Air between the Piers is a fantastic family-friendly concert.

“We have had huge success with our past two events so we can’t wait for this year.

“A gig on the beach, with the waves lapping on the shore and the sun setting over the pier is a fantastic experience anyway, but couple this with the Night Air flying and you have a truly special combination that the artists and crowd love in equal measure.”

As well as live music, the Night Air programme features The Band of HM Royal Marines (CTCRM) performing the Beating Retreat, the Royal Marines Combat Display Team.

The extended dusk display starts at 7.15pm on Friday and Saturday, with firework displays on Friday and Saturday night and beach fireworks on Friday evening.

Tickets cost £8 (postal fees apply) with 6,500 tickets available for each night from bhlivetickets.co.uk The air festival brochure is on sale now and is available from Daily Echo offices, shops around the area and the Bournemouth Tourism Information Centre in advance and around the festival site.

Charities benefitting from sales are the Jon Egging Trust, Royal Navy Royal Marines Association, Not Forgotten Association and the British Lung Foundation.

The Daily Echo’s book celebrating the first five years of the festival is also still on sale.

Read lots more in our air festival section online at bournemouthecho.co.uk/air and, for mobile users, at bit.ly/bmthair.