Southend: New Military Theme For Airshow

27 July 2013, 06:00

After being cancelled this year with council cutbacks, Southend Airshow is going to be back next year, but it's moving from the May Bank Holiday weekend to the first weekend in September.

The event is being put together by volunteers after a campaign to bring it back.

The change to the 6th and 7th of September is in the hope that the weather is dry and sunny.

Tom Curtis, who's helping organise it told Heart: 'Yes this May Bank Holiday weekend was a great weather weekend, but realistically, most May Bank Holiday's are cold, drizzly and horrible.

'What we're trying to do is move the event to a period of the year where there's a greater chance of having sunshine and most importantly so we can guarantee that all the planes that we book can fly, because if there's low flying cloud or something like that, it means a whole load of planes can't fly.'

The event is being also being rebrand as the Southend Airshow and Military Festival.

Mr Curtis said: 'We want to honour our troops and armed forces and Southend has had a proud military history.

'Obviously you have the barracks at Shoebury, you got the testing ground at Falness, and obviously you have Southend Airport, which was a World War 1 airfield, so there's a huge, huge history here and we think that the airshow can better honour our troops.'

Fundraising to cover the cost of the event is continuing,