Southport Air Show. Parking and catering come under fire from TripAdvisor reviewers

People have taken to TripAdvisor to air their views over the chaotic parking and catering arrangements at last weekends Air Show.

To be fair the problems at Tarleton lights are not the fault of the Air Asoh organisers.

Some of the comments posted on TripAdvisor below.

Great display worst ever event parking.

We are on holiday in Lytham from North Scotland. Went on Sunday and organisations for parking were simply awful. As others have said, the 4 way lights roadworks about 7 miles out should have been suspended. That to one side, we were forced along marine drive to a huge queue at 11am - I said in the car I guessed it was because they were forcing people to pay for parking before letting them in the car park, and that's exactly what happened through ONE KIOSK (and they rejected my Scottish ten pound note). Guys, you don't do that - you filter traffic in quickly with loads of Marshall's pointing you to spaces and then they take payment at your window. I feel sorry for those who prepaid as there was no separate queue for them. I've been to lots of major sporting and music events and this was by some way the worst for parking. As others said, food was a total joke - I walked into Southport and got sannys, drinks etc there and came back. Back to car and having experience of leaving big events, set up our chairs at the car, had some food and drink looking out to sea and left an hour later via the town, NOT marine drive - scooted through and saw a still huge queue trying to exit marine drive. Display itself was excellent, and Southport seems a nice place but please please please don't organise your parking like that.

Arrived early not possible

Made every effort to arrive early, however road works on our route made this impossible approx 7 miles from Southport 4 way lights that held us up for almost an hour, with just a little forward planning the works could have been suspended to ease the flow of traffic to the long awaited show. When we arrived on marine drive we were meet with a queue approx 3 miles long we spent an hour and a half in this queue only 6 pay stations open to handle thousands of cars. All paying by card.
The same story at the food and drink stands not enough and queues of over an hour long. When we came to exit the show we were faced with the same lengthy queues just a little traffic management would have made the experience so much better.
The air show itself was fantastic but the supporting organisation was a shambles, come on Southport you can surely improve the visitor experience.

Excellent Air Show but not worth the admission charge

Was lucky enough to get hold of some trade tickets for the opening day of this years (2022) Southport Air Show and although as a family we are not really into aircraft we all thouroughly enjoyed the day and the vast range of aircraft on display whilst admiring the pilots skills who piloted them.

Having trade tickets meant we did not have to pay the £10 admission charge per person which would have cost us £20 for both myself and my wife as under 16's are free so you don't have to pay for little ones, however we did have to pay the £8 parking charge to park our car on the beach so potentially the day could have cost us £28.

So what would we have got for our £28 had we not had the trade tickets?
Well very little to be honest there were a number of military tents setup representing various Army regiments and RAF squadrons so you could have your picture taken with or sit in whatever equipment they had brought with them or visit one of the many burger or ice cream vans dotted around and pay over the odds for their goods, likewise there was a number of trader stalls selling ex military stuff such as clothing etc. and a kiddies bouncy castle at £5 for 10 minutes for the little ones.
Unfortunately all ages were chucked in there together so you had boisterous teenagers bouncing around toddlers and our 3 and a half year old was a bit over awed by it all and we spent 10 minutes trying to encourage him to go in and play so £5 quid thrown away there.
Not the main organisers fault as the bouncy castle was run by a private vendor but something to bear in mind if your little one is a little bit shy around other kids like ours is.

Overall I do not think the admission price then the parking charge on top of that is worth it to basically enter a fenced off area to pay even more money and jacked up prices from vendors that you will find at any decent sized car boot sale.
However that said if you are really into your aircraft and military stuff or you are a photographer and hoping to get some really good photographs of the aircraft in the air during the displays then you need to be in the official viewing area as this gives you the best views and angles of the show and if this is what you are going to the Southport Air Show for then I suggest you get there early and suck up the half an hour sat waiting on Marine Drive so that you can be one of the first to be let onto the beach at 9am to park where you will be directed to park in front of the barriers which will give you an unrestricted view when the displays begin.
This is what we ended up doing but it was luck rather than design as we had set off to Southport early as we had no idea how busy the traffic would be.

Another tip is to leave your car on the beach after the show and head into Southport for something to eat to let the bulk of the air show traffic leave before heading home yourself, again this is what we did and we had a clear run and most of the traffic had gone by the time we left Southport.
Finally take plenty of sunscreen on a sunny day as although it's breezy on the beach and you won't realise you are getting sunburnt you'll definately feel it the next day!

Will definately go again next year but If I'm unable to get any trade tickets then I'll do as many others were doing this year and watch the air show from outside of the wire as I do not think the cost of the admission charge is worth it personally.

Great show, poor facility

Great show, fantastic displays from all involved. Pa brilliant and informative.

Now the big gripe.

Food franchise was terrible, expensive , poorly operated, understaffed and they looked like they had no training. Very amateur. Queues were horrendous , over an hour for all choices. Alongside this there should have been a couple of old fashioned burger and chip operations that know how to serve food quickly and efficiently. Organisers need to get a grip of this. It's great offering a faux street food option but NOT when it's so poorly run.

More food vendors needed

Really looking forward to being back at southport air show , we drove in along the coastal road and had no trouble with parking. There were so many people there,many more than I have seen in the past. Cannot comment on all of the displays as we missed some of them whist queuing for food !!!!!over an hour in a queue for food is not acceptable.....we missed the Korean black eagles which was one of the displays we were really looking forward to seeing....... there were also huge queues for the few ice cream vans that were there and also for the toilets. The lad serving us took 10mins to put together 3 cheeseburgers , everything was there already cooked for him so he literally had to put the food on a bap !!!!!!! TOTALLY, TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE......you need to at least triple your food and ice cream vendors and also the amount of toilets there and get staff who are trained in the art of timely burger preparation .
I would definitely take my own food and drink if I ever go back.

Good show. Terrible going home

I got a train to Birkdale and walked along the road that led to the beach and onto the sand dunes set up my chair and got ready for the show to begin also here I did not have to pay I Photographed the planes in the show but left to get a train back to Liverpool Central before the rush after the show and with it being a nice day there lots of people on this train that only had Three carriages instead of Six and more people could get on and Sit.