Scarborough Presents Biggest Armed Forces Day And Air Show

Scarborough is hosting one of the UK's largest Armed Forces Day events, featuring a packed schedule of air displays, parades, and military celebrations along the coast.

The event features a full day of activities, bringing together military personnel, veterans, and the public along the Yorkshire Coast.

One of the organisers, Major John Senior said:

"Scarborough and North Yorkshire very much get behind this event. The event's become probably one of the largest in the UK to be honest. So, this begins the week of of celebrations of past, present, and future, celebrating the military and the Armed Forces, but also throwing open Scarborough's doors. So, we would invite the Armed Forces, come over here, the families come over here, and enjoy a really good day out here in Scarborough on Saturday. And we have a special bundle of extras for them and we have free ice creams for the children, sticks of rock, and a kind of a passport of activities around the resort specifically for military families. So, I would ask them, you know, come over, be well and you'll have a wonderful day here in Scarborough. It's going to be the biggest air show we've had, actually. So, a really exciting day. We've got the bands and the military paraphernalia and everything else. So, it's going to be a really superb day and come along, enjoy it."

Throughout the afternoon, visitors can enjoy a variety of performances and displays.

Flight Officer Liam Cromack said:

"We'll have a stall down at the Armed Forces Day, yeah, on the sandside, opposite roughly the Newcastle Packet. We'll be displaying what we do. We've got a tombola. We've got various souvenirs and gifts to give out. And then towards the end of the day, we'll get involved in the final parade with the rest of the cadet forces and military veterans. We do get a lot of interest because it's something new for kids as well. They see the uniform, instantly it's like, "Whoa, what's that? What's that about?" So, they come and ask us and I mean, we do all sorts with cadets, they go flying, gliding, shooting, adventure training, camps, there's actually hundreds of stuff that they can get involved in, it's great for the kids growing up."

Lee Holmes is from the Hard Routine Charity Tour:

 "What started as an initiative to try and get the lads together on the hills and that blokes who were demographically displaced, if you will, it's evolved into this charity effort, hence the name Hard Routine Charity Tour, where we try and recreate our regiment's historical campaigns in a charitable context. So we'll... for example, last year we travelled from Richmond to France on foot. Richmond the historical home of the Yorkshire Regiment to Crepon in France, which is where the Green Howards landed on the first day of D-Day, 1944. And we recreated that, and we managed to raise nine grand for the Yorkshire Regiment Benevolent Fund and Combat Stress."

Commodore Tom Knowles is from the Royal Navy:

" It's amazing and as always, whenever I come to Scarborough, it is very hot. I was really honoured to be here back in 2022 when it was the National Armed Forces Day. And so to be invited back now in my new role as the Naval Regional Commander for Northern England, to take the salute is a real pleasure and something I'm very much looking forward to doing in about two hours or so. Armed Forces Day is about a recognition, and it's about a recognition by society of the men and women in our armed forces who are sacrificing so much to defend the nation. And it's wonderful that somewhere Scarborough is so open- Yeah ... and friendly."

Kevin Foster is Armed Fosters Champion For North Yorkshire: 

" Every time I come here, and it's about the third or fourth one I've done, that the speech is always, "Well, I told you I ordered the weather," and they come up with it every year, so I can't even argue with that. Even I can't sort weather out like that. Well, I tell you what, remembering... I mean, we're all looking forward to that wonderful Typhoon and all them sort of things going on, but one thing sticks.

"Last year, we had the RAF guys, the cadets, doing a drill. They were exceptional, and I'm looking forward to seeing them. I've heard that the other cadet force doing it were, won competition, so I'm really looking forward to that, really. I do enjoy all the stuff, but that really took my eye last year, and I've remembered it. I remember it last year. You see the hill over there? I remember that, coming straight up over there. That's a memory. So I've remembered things, and I just remember the best thing about everybody loves to be by the seaside, the seaside, everybody having ice creams. And what... You know what really gets it? Everybody smiles here. Everybody's having a good time. We're together as a nation, like we should be, and we're behind our armed forces. It's their day out to have their day, and let's support them."