Mach 1 Air Show at Punchestown 2006

[Frank]

Hi Guys,

The Mach 1 Air Show & Exhibition will be held at Punchestown Racecourse & Exhibition Centre on Sunday 4th & Monday 5th June.

Confirmed Displays will be added as they are confirmed.

http://www.mach1.ie/


Regards,

Frank.

[Irish251]

This show is being promoted on the basis that tickets must be bought on-line, in advance.  Does anyone know if they will also be admitting people who turn up on the day and are willing to pay?  It would seem strange not to make provision for this, as many people may decide at relatively short notice whether to attend or not, for example depending on the weather at the weekend.

[Frank]

Hi SF,

As far as I'm aware tickets will be available on the day, the organisers were trying to sell as many tickets in advance to prevent excessive queuing.


Regards,

Frank.

[Irish251]

Thanks for that, Frank.

[Irish251]

This would appear to be completely academic now.  The following message comes up on the airshow website if you attempt to book tickets:

UNFORTUNATELY THE MACH1 AIRSHOW & EXHIBITION EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED

PLEASE RETURN YOUR TICKETS TO THE CENTRAL TICKET BUREAU FOR A FULL REFUND

[Buran]

Press Release

MACH1 AIRSHOW CANCELLED

The MACH 1 Airshow due to take place in Punchestown Racecourse next Sunday the 4th and Monday the 5th of June has been cancelled due to a dispute between Airshow Organisers and Kildare County Council.  The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) is the only statutory body that can licence an Airshow, however Kildare County Council (KCC) is insisting on another licence for spectators watching the aerobatic displays. The event licence from the County council must be applied for 17 weeks in advance of an event and at this stage it is too late to process the application. The Airshow organisers met with Kildare County Council at 2pm on Wednesday in a last attempt to save the Airshow but unfortunately a compromise could not be reached.

All three Airshows staged in Ireland last year, Salthill, Tipperary and Bray only required an IAA licence and as far back as 2003, Galway County Council stated categorically that the Salthill Airshow did not require a County Council licence.  Last August, the same team organising the MACH1 Airshow organised the Bray Airshow which attracted over 70,000 people and took place successfully and safely with an IAA licence but without a County Council licence.

Talks have been ongoing between organisers and Kildare County Council but last Tuesday May 23, a letter was sent from the Council threatening legal action if the Airshow went ahead.  Reacting to the letter Chief Organiser Dave Scully said; “At this stage I have tried everything to save the MACH 1 Airshow.  We had to move the Airshow from Bray to Punchestown simply because we could not afford to run another free admission Airshow. I am bitterly disappointed to cancel the show and disappoint all the people who have bought tickets but we are not in a position to fight a legal battle with a County Council, I now have to inform all the various European Embassies and acts that the Airshow is not taking place”

Just some of the many acts planned for the action packed bank holiday weekend at the Mach1 Punchestown Air Show are The Breitling Jet Aerobatic Team, Utterly Butterly Wing Walkers, The 2Excel Formation Team, The Irish Air Corps, Dennis Kenyon with his solo crazy helicopter flying antics, The Irish Parachute Club, (who will be celebrating their 50 year Anniversary), the Irish Coastguard,The Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, The Dutch Air Force, and solo Aerobatic Pilot Eddie Goggins, who will be representing Ireland with the first ever Irish Team to compete at an Advanced World Aerobatic Championships which will be held in Poland later this year.  

ENDS

[FiSe]

It is unbelievable, there is bunch of people out there, who do their best to bring some air related event on the east, most populated, part of this country, but stupidly blind and totaly unflexible red tape has last word. Last year in Bray, when, surprisingly, even local Chamber of Commerce, went on crusaide against Bray Air Show, this year Kildare Co.Co. has last word in Punchestown.
What's wrong with those people, I wonder...

[Fouga]

roll on Salthill!

[Nosefirsteverytime]

Ach, we Galwegians know how to put one on!

  roll on Salthill indeed

[Peter Elliot]

Kildare County Council Fights Back. Take a read of this press release it seems there is more to this cancellation than meets the eye.

CANCELLATION OF AIR SHOW
Kildare County Council has today (1 June) learned of the cancellation of the Mach 1 Air Show which had been scheduled for 4 and 5 June at Punchestown. A council spokesman has pointed out that the event was cancelled by the show’s organisers and not by the local authority.

The organisers’ agent asked the county council in January whether an event licence was required for the show. He was told that in the council’s opinion a licence was required, and was offered an opportunity to test this by getting legal advice or by submitting a case for consideration.

No application for an event licence was made to the county council.

The air show’s organisers have incorrectly claimed that the Irish Aviation Authority is the only statutory body that can licence an air show. The air show also required an event licence and every opportunity was available to the organisers to apply for one. The fact that they did not avail of such an opportunity is a matter of regret. Kildare County Council has never refused any application made for an event licence.

The council sympathises with all the people who were looking forward to the air show and who will now be disappointed at its cancellation.

The requirement for an event licence for the show is laid down in the Planning and Development Act 2000, (Section 230 – copy attached). The county council had no choice but to tell the promoter that a licence was required for the air show: any other advice would have been dishonest and misleading.

[RMR]

Ahh,bring back air spectacular in the don!!

[GoneToTheCanner]

Hi guys
Salthill and Bray have one advantage in that they do not base themselves at an airfield and, as such, are not a land-based event.They are, in effect,flypasts. The fact that the aircraft may chose to land at airports in the vicinity is a pleasant coincidence. If the punters at Salthill and Bray chose to stop at the roadside to view the aircraft as they go by, well, that's up to them.This is, in real terms, going around the rigmarole of getting permission by being clever.I think the organisers were being a bit too clever on this one and got caught.Quite how they expected an event with the potential to draw multiple thousands of visitors and cars, to a comparatively confined area, and not require the permission of the County authorities, is beyond me.
regards
GttC

[202]

You have hit the nail on the head GTTC. From the Planning & Development Act licensing requirements the nature of the show is immaterial (air show, rock concert, whatever) it is the fact that x 10,000 of people are being drawn to the event that creates a legal (and commonsense) requirement on the organisers to submit a traffic, crowd and management plan to the local authority.

Your analysis re why Galway does not seem to require such a licence is probably correct, although it may still be arguable that a licence is required or not under the Planning Acts.

[GoneToTheCanner]

Hi there
I'm not sure of the legal background to obtain permission for an airshow but I'd imagine that a seafront event, where the acts do not touch the foreshore, are outside the remit of landside planning or event laws. I remember the Don falling foul of similar in the early days of the Don airshows because they assumed that the laws didn't apply to them.In theory, the laws didn't, inside Baldonnel, but they quickly learned that you cannot foist 100,000 + people and their transport on a confined road system and expect to get away without catering for them.Still , this might prompt a better approach next year.
regards
GttC

[202]

The point from the planning law side of things GTTC is not so much where the air activity is taking place but the fact that x thousand people are going to assemble in a particular place at a particular time therefore creating issues of traffic,crowd and emergency planning.  The same situation would arise, for example, if say U2 were giving a concert on a floating stage or similar. The action may be taking place offshore but the crowd assembly takes place on the land.