A million reasons to celebrate Air Festival (From Bournemouth Echo)

A million reasons to celebrate Air Festival

11:06am Monday 3rd September 2012 in Opinion

In our letters section today , Bournemouth councils, past and present come in for some flak over seafront facilities. This has been a long running and often ill-tempered debate that’s no doubt also had in every seaside resort in Britain.

So let’s give a bit of credit where it is due. A little over five years ago, the tourism director publicly floated the idea of Bournemouth hosting an air festival.

Though some scoffed at the time that it would never happen, half a decade later, the success of the event, notwithstanding occasional poor weather, flash floods and tragedy, is there for all to see.

A million visitors over the four days. If anyone doubts the value to the local economy, or the less tangible feelgood factor, they should have been down at the beachfront on Saturday. Privately, even the pilots will tell you it’s among the best organised shows in the UK.

And they should know.