Lowestoft Air Festival will "definitely" not take place again

The two-day event attracted up to 240,000 people to the seafront in good weather

Organisers of the Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival say they will "definitely" not stage the event again and they have begun selling off its assets.

The two-day event last took place in 2012, but bad weather meant they had to spend their contingency fund.

Organisers have not been able to raise the £60,000 contingency fund needed to stage the show this year.

Paul Bayfield, from the organisers, said: "It feels like a bereavement as we think it was very, very special."

The event cost about £300,000 in total to stage and it attracted up to 240,000 people when the weather was favourable.

The RAF Search & Rescue helicopter on display at Lowestoft in 2006

The Lowestoft Vision business group tried to raise the £60,000 to save the festival, but ran out of time and admitted defeat in October.

Voluntary donations

Waveney District Council handed over the organisation of the event to a community interest company called Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival Ltd in 2004.

They did not charge an entry fee, but people visiting the seafront were asked to make voluntary donations.

Mr Bayfield, who is managing director of the company, said: "The public could have supported us better and so could some of the local businesses, because the people who made the most from the air show contributed the least.

"But that is definitely it now. We rent a store and for us to carry on in the vain hope that someone may come along and give us a bit of backing is not realistic.

"We will sell-off our weather vane, air traffic control shed, buoys and other equipment and all the money that is left we will distribute between the various charities that have helped us."