One of the chief organisers of the Great Yarmouth Air Show has spoken of his delight at seeing 80,000 people attend the event’s first day.

Gareth Brown, chair of the tourism bid body behind the show, was speaking just before the show started at 1pm today.

He said: “It was an absolute delight and talking to the traders there has been some phenomenal takings. That is great to hear.

“I don’t think we have seen so many people on the beach since the 1970s. It was a great sight to see.

“The promenade was absolutely throbbing with people. It is great to see so many happy families enjoying themselves.

“It has been a dream so far, I don’t want to jinx anything as we still have a day to go.

“It is almost too good to be true. The main thing is to see so many people in Great Yarmouth enjoying themselves and having a great time. We are hoping people will come back again and again.

“The traffic was great yesterday, obviously we have put a lot of time and effort in working with our partners, the public bodies and also Mervyn Transport, who have been doing a traffic plan for us.”

Mr Brown also spoke about the cancellation of today’s flight by the RAF Tutor.

He said: “From an over perspective it is a small part of the show, unfortunately from time to time things can go wrong so it is inevitable these things can happen.

“But we still got more than three hours of of flights, obviously the star attraction is the Red Arrows and the memorial flight are still here to put on amazing displays for everybody.”