Bournemouth Air Festival 2009

HI Chris,
Loving the feel of the films, top notch stuff throughout!! The channel looks great too, it's a great way to have an interactive background to the event. But I can't help notice there only seems to be a relative trickle of viewers to the site (and one could assume that as most videos have a similar count, people are hanging around to watch all the films -thats a great thing!) - I hope something is being done to change that, it would be a pity for all this work not to hit a good audience.

No wish to put a damper on things Chris but, Eastbourne has its airshow, called Airbourne, which is also supposed to be the largest airshow in the UK - advertised as such - and which runs for five days prior to the Bournemouth one. It took me one and a half hours to travel three miles out of Eastbourne at the finish on the occasion I last visited that show. Crowds! Any films of the event are therefore obviously of much benefit to many who couldn't see it. Likewise Bournemouth's.

The Red Arrows and many other performing aeroplanes attend Eastbourne's so I'm presuming that most if not all of them also go to Bournemouth?

If you went to Eastbourne and Bournemouth last year (like wot I did) the difference was amazing. Eastbourne tried charging. It was a grey chilly day. Crowds were very sparse. Bournemouth was vibrant - couldn't move for people - all havin' a good time. So don't assume you can necessarily compare the two events :)

Oh - Chris - have you advertised at eg http://forums.airshows.co.uk/? Might be worthwhile. It's my fave site for airshow geekery.

Thanks for the responses and kind comments gents.

Ron - the Bournemouth event is a Festival rather than a show - the distinction made by Bournemouth Council is that the Festival has a lot of "ground-based" events rather than just an air show. It is completely free for everything - lots of bands playing, Royal Marines hostage rescue, stands and stalls, fireworks displays etc.

Regards traffic to the site, the number of subscribers is growing, but maybe not as fast as we like. During the event their will be regular announcements over the PA systems, and their will be brief highlights of each day going up on the site every night.

David - are you going this year? We will have a stand on the beach front, do come and say hello.

Thanks for the tip re the website - will look into that

Chris

How right you are, David, about last year - a serious miscalculation by the town council. First and last time for a charge to be made with the cordoned off beach area. Lowest attendance and poorest financial result ever for the event .... A foolish spoiler.

Regarding the difference, Chris, the Eastbourne one also has many various 'ground' attractions throughout a large section of the sea front.. After years of very successful shows, allegedly the world's biggest(!) the local council couldn't resist the temptation of making more cash from it and murdered the whole thing. This year, it's back to normal.

... hoping to - I love Vulcans :) (But working 24/7 this month on a "proper work" project so it may not happen.) If so I'll come and say hi to whoever's there...

Good luck with the video. A pig of a location being S-facing and all that... Eastbourne is slightly better from that perspective! I've only ever done stills at such events.

yes, David - the sun can be a problem! Even more of a problem when it p***s with rainn like it did on Sunday last year!

We have just filmed a piece about the Vulcan, and will be putting it up on YouTube Channel before the Festival, so look out for it! On the DVD there will be a full feature about it whhich we plan to film after the festival has finished.

Ah well, I must have been there Saturday - at Bournemouth airport then at the seafront. Frankly it was far too busy for my liking :)

Looking forwards to your Vulcan piece - I'll be ordering this year's video, like last year's, I imagine....