Southend Airshow

A Brief History

The first annual seafront airshow took to the skies on Monday 26 May 1986 as the Grand Finale of the Southend Spring Festival.

This was the only year that there was a fee charged to enter the cordoned-off display area from Shorefields Road to the Three Shells. Adults were charged £3 whilst children aged 3–16 paid £1.

To stop people evading 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.

Southend is the longest running seafront airshow, and celebrated 25 consecutive years in 2010. It is regarded as the benchmark for all the other towns that saw how popular the event was and copied the idea to boost tourism in their own towns.

Southend has also attracted Vulcan, F117a, Vickers Viscount, Boeing 737, 747, 757, 767 and the Saab Draken to its show.

The first show starred Concorde, doing a routine whilst carrying passengers, an airshow, dubbed Festival of the Air in 2009, takes place each May. At the show aircraft including high-speed military jets and sports aerobatic displays fly over the sea, parallel with the seafront. The RAF Falcons parachute display team and RAF Red Arrows jet aerobatics team are regular visitors to the show.

 

More history and culture of Southend on Sea