ORGANISERS of two of the area's largest events have been asking where the crowds were after suffering drastically reduced turnouts.

Both the Swindon Show and Air Display and the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford suffered from poor turnouts this year.

Yet despite the reduced attendances, both shows have vowed to continue.

The Swindon Show, which was held at Lydiard Country Park last weekend, was blessed with bright sunny weather but blighted by low audience numbers, which were half the 10,000 forecast.

Its performance has come as a blow to the Imperial Charity, which organised the event. Earlier this year, the Imperial Charity organised the Wessex Show near Frome.

But bad weather played havoc with the crowds there and low attendance at both shows has left the charity with a £20,000 deficit in its finances.

David McCance, chairman of the show and founder of the Imperial Charity, the main beneficiary of event, was disappointed but remained positive.

He said: "The show in itself was fabulous and everything went to plan but the attendance was extremely disappointing."

"I think the main problem was that the council omitted to tell us that four of the major employers in Swindon had shut down for the holidays. That had a serious effect.

"Overall, around 5,000 people attended during the weekend, around 2,500 a day, half of the minimum required to make the show a success.

"We are going to look a later dates probably in early September and within the next month we will be sending out letters to various Swindon firms asking for their support for next year's show.

"If we can get one or two companies in the town to sponsor the arena events or the music tent, that would take a lot of pressure off us as a charity. We could then spend money on improving the show even further."

Meanwhile, the number of people who attended this year's Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford was dramatically down by 50,000.

Organisers had expected the two-day air show to attract 200,000 visitors. But it has now been officially confirmed that only 150,000 turned up to see the show.

However RIAT Director Paul Bowen was not too disappointed and insisted that last year's traffic congestion on the way to Fairford was not the only reason for the drop in numbers.

He said: "We had anticipated crowd numbers would be down on last year for a number of reasons not least because 2002 marked the return of the Tattoo to RAF Fairford after a two year absence.

"While last year's traffic delays would have had an effect, there were also two other major public events going on at the same time as ours, the British Formula One Grand Prix at Silverstone and the Open Golf Championship in Kent."

Last year's show had been ruined for many people when drivers got caught up for several hours in a 15-mile tailback from Fairford to junction 15 of the M4.

In a bid to prevent it happening again RIAT bosses introduced a new traffic management plan. As a result, there were no major hold-ups reported over the show weekend.

Said Mr Bowen: "While a reduced crowd at this year's Tattoo may have had some effect on congestion, I am confident that the range of measures we introduced and trialled, including the new route from the M4 motorway, the park-and-ride facility in Swindon, and the appointment of a team of professional traffic management consultants have paid off."