THE Night-Air entertainment has been attracting thousands of people to a mix of elegance and violence.

Friday's show in the Lower Gardens included a beautiful falconry display and graceful circus performers.

But the Royal Marine Commando Combat Display Team had the crowd ‘oohing’ with sympathy as they whacked each other with baseball bats and sticks.

They spent eight minutes showing off chokeholds, throws and blocks that always seemed to culminate in the man on the ground getting a kick in the ribs.

They were wore no protection and all the hits were real – so did it hurt?

“It does hurt – a lot,” said Marine Jack Edwards, 23, from Nottingham: “I can get the bruises out if you like.”

The Royal Marines band of HMS Collingwood played a beat the retreat in front of the bandstand and the crowd stood on their feet for the closing rendition of ‘God Save the Queen’.

Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood, a former army officer, told the crowd from the VIP area: “This evening is not just about enjoying the shows.

“It’s also a chance for those of us not in uniform to say thank you to those of us who are.”

The crowds were big and the pathways crowded, though the iffy weather meant there was no repeat of last year’s paralysing throngs.

The Punch and Judy display attracted a huge and rowdy audience who watched a very non-PC Punch beat the daylights out of his enemies, among them a crocodile and a devil.

Meanwhile the circus performers included a man who was balanced on top of a 10-foot tall unicycle, prompting a blood thirsty little boy in the front row to cry out: “You are going to die!”

The sing-a-long ‘Sound of Music’ attracted a good-sized crowd including a dozen drinking fake nuns until the rain turned heavy at 8.30pm.

The was terrible timing for the Balloon Glow performers who saw the waiting crowds head for cover just as the first flames shot out.

They’d already had to leave the actual balloons out because the winds were too high.