This last weekend was one of my favourites of the year. On Friday, as the August Bank Holiday weekend began, I attended the final day of the Clacton Airshow, the largest aviation event on the Essex coast.

As always though, my first stop was my annual visit to the Clacton-on-Sea Real Ale & Cider Festival. The organising team at Tendring CMARA did a great job as usual with over 50 real ales, ciders, perries, and also some local Essex wine on offer.

This was the 29th time the Festival has taken place, meaning that next year will be the big 3-0, so definitely some cause for a big celebration next year!

Then it was down to the seafront for the airshow itself. The theme of this year’s event was “A Celebration of Aviation” and it certainly was.

Looking up and down the beach I was delighted to see tens of thousands of people, enjoying both the aerial manoeuvres and the ground-based entertainments and attractions. In fact I’m told over 200,000 people attended the airshow across its two days, which will have been a major boost to our local businesses.  

The Clacton Airshow was as fantastic as ever and we were all lucky enough to see spectacular aircraft in action. We had legendary Spitfires and Hurricanes alongside some more modern planes and, of course, the highlight of the day, another brilliant display by the Red Arrows team.

My thanks to Tendring Council, local businesses and companies and all those involved in putting the airshow together. They deserve much thanks for what is one of the major highlights of the summer here on the Essex Sunshine Coast.

If you weren’t able to make it this year, whatever you do, don’t miss out next year!