Page 10 - 368647 LP250846 In and Around Magazine 60pp A5 (November 2022)

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Bye bye Sunderland airshow
It was the biggest airshow in Europe, and now it’s over. Sunderland Airshow has been cancelled indefinitely, as Sunderland council says it wants to make the city carbon neutral.
The popular event attracted thousands of people to Roker every year and was last held in 2019, as subsequent dates were cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Sunderland Airshow has been officially recognised as England’s Best Tourism Experience, attracting visitors from across the North East and the rest of the country, as well as aviation geeks, for the 30 years it was a permanent fixture in the North East’s calendar.
Humble Beginnings
The airshow began as part of the six-
week River Wear Festival and saw 250,000 people attend the first show in 1989. To the organisers excitement, the event succeeded all expectations and continued to grow, leading to the decisions that it would become a regular summer attraction.
It took three years before organisers realised the airshow needed two days to really thrive, and
while bad weather did put in an appearance, over 200,000 people still turned out to watch some fantastic displays.
Over the years, Seaburn beach has played host to some major guests, including Concord, and displays have been put on by pilots across the world. Regular guests, such as the RAF Falcons parachute team, became firm favourites, and soon vintage planes began joining the flight.
One Last Flight
While we didn’t know it at the time, the three day event that took place in July 2019 was the last Sunderland International Airshow we would see for a long time. The final acts included
The Tigers Army Parachute Display Team, RAF Typhoon, Ultimate Fighters and the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
The Airshow will be missed by all of us, though we do understand that it’s in the best interest of the planet that it ends. Hopefully one it can make a return, when we’ve worked out an amazing carbon neutral fuel method, we can see the Airshow make a return.
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