Bournemouth Air Festival: Thousands to attend four day event

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to flock to a seaside town for its annual air festival.

Bournemouth Air Festival will get under way later and can be best viewed on the beach either side of Bournemouth Pier or on the clifftops.

The Red Arrows will display on all four days of the festival, which will mark the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

Several other aircraft, including the Spitfire and RAF Typhoon, will also be displaying over Poole Bay.

The event will feature live music, food stalls and fun fairs.

Earlier this year the Mayor of Bournemouth councillor Robert Lawton wrote to the Queen to invite her to the festival.

BCP Council has now confirmed that in a letter back, the Queen's Diary Secretary said the Queen would be unable to attend, but hoped very much that the air festival was "a successful and enjoyable one for all those attending".

In previous years the thousands of people travelling to the town resulted in heavy traffic on the A338 Spur Road - the main route in and out of Bournemouth.

Airspace and water restrictions will be in place for the duration of the festival.

That means members of the public will not be allowed to fly drones or travel by boat across the exclusion zones.

"Should any breach of these spaces occur during the event, officers will be deployed to take positive action against those involved," Dorset Police superintendent Wayne Nock warned.

The event is said to generate millions of pounds each year for the local economy.

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