Pandemic restrictions hit airshow
THE English Riviera Airshow has been cancelled for 2021, according to reports.
Torbay Council cabinet members were due to hold an informal meeting at which the final decision on the air show was expected to be taken.
It is understood that members were forced to accept that it would not be possible to hold an air show this year.
It will be the second year in succession that the Paignton-based show has fallen victim to the restrictions placed on public gatherings by the coronavirus pandemic.
Organisers of numerous other local summer events are expected to make announcements on their 2021 plans in the coming weeks.
The 2021 air show at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset was also called off last week as the virus began to take its toll on the Westcountry’s summer events calendar.
Organisers in Brixham have already called off this year’s pirate festival which was scheduled for the start of May. The English Riviera Airshow would have taken place over the first weekend in June. Previous events – 2021 would have been the air show’s fifth year – have seen crowds of more than 150,000 line Torbay’s sea fronts.
The major event brings an estimated £7 million boost to the early-season tourism, shopping and hospitality trades.
Losing it for the second year in succession will be a further blow to the under-pressure tourist trade.
It is understood that councillors feared the air show, even with limited crowds, would become a ‘superspreader’ event for the virus.
In addition, the problems of keeping count of the crowds and limiting the numbers on Paignton Green would have been insurmountable.
Officers and councillors had been optimistic they might be able to host a show in 2021, but the emergence of new Covid variants since Christmas is believed to have influenced the decision to pull the plug.