UPDATE: Rhyl Air Show 2024 cancelled this year and this is why

PREPARATIONS for the 2024 Rhyl Air Show are underway – but a clash of schedules means this year’s event is unlikely to feature the return of the Red Arrows.

The two-day air show typically takes place during the August bank holiday weekend, which this year falls on August 24 and 25.

Since returning in 2022 following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Royal Air Force’s Red Arrows aerobatic team have performed at Rhyl Air Show for the last two years.

Rhyl Journal: The Red Arrows at Rhyl Air Show, August 26, 2023The Red Arrows at Rhyl Air Show, August 26, 2023 (Image: Amy Owen)

But this year, the Red Arrows are due to visit Canada for air shows across four consecutive weekends in August and September.

This includes Air Show Atlantic in Nova Scotia on August 24 and 25, and the Canadian International Air Show in Toronto on August 31 and September 1 and 2.

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Rhyl Journal: Fairey Swordfish at Rhyl Air Show 2023Fairey Swordfish at Rhyl Air Show 2023 (Image: Photography by Samantha)

Denbighshire Leisure Ltd, the company responsible for organising Rhyl Air Show, said that planning for events in Rhyl and along the coast are underway.

It aims to publicise these plans in due course.

As well as the Red Arrows, last year’s Rhyl Air Show also featured performances from the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, Strikemaster Pair, Calidus Autogyro, and more.

At the 2022 Rhyl Air Show, meanwhile, the Red Arrows had to make an emergency landing after one pilot’s aircraft was struck by a bird, though he was thankfully unharmed.

Rhyl Journal: The Red Arrows and The Starlings at Rhyl Air Show 2023, watched by crowds along the town's seafrontThe Red Arrows and The Starlings at Rhyl Air Show 2023, watched by crowds along the town's seafront (Image: Newsquest)

The Red Arrows did not attend the 2019 Rhyl Air Show – the last prior to the pandemic - as it clashed with a tour of North America.

The tour of Canada is also taking place during a milestone year for the Red Arrows, with 2024 being its 60th “diamond season”.

British High Commissioner to Canada, Susannah Goshko, said: “In their own 60th anniversary year, the Red Arrows tour across Canada will be both a joy to watch, and a fantastic way to highlight the close and enduring relationship between our two air forces.”