IF YOU were one of the hundreds of thousands of people who flocked to the Bournemouth Air Festival this weekend, the chances are you may have seen a Red Arrow or two, a Sea Vixen or even a Eurofighter Typhoon.

But how many noticed the two miles of cable linking up 200 separate PA systems between Bournemouth and Boscombe piers?

Or the cleaners on the beach at 2am making sure the seafront was neat and tidy for the next day's events?

They may not be quite as spectacular a sight as the numerous aircraft on display, but it's thanks to the army of behind-the-scenes staff that the festival was even possible.

Some 900 people worked hard to ensure the smooth running of the four days. But Mark Smith, Bournemouth's director of tourism, said the town's people were also instrumental in the success.

"It was a spectacular event and it was a great success, but it only works because the people of Bournemouth really got behind it," he said.

"There's an army of people that delivered this. At 2am we had the seafront teams out there and the cleaning teams out there making sure the beach was sorted.

"We had the police and traffic teams out there making sure everything was in place, we had got the signage teams - so absolutely everyone made things possible.

"The back room people sorting out the PA stuff had two miles of cabling and 200 separate PA systems around the town to set up because we had to have the whole lower promenade and upper promenade between both piers covered so everybody could hear what was going on.

"All that equipment had to be put up and taken down.

"There was something like about 900 people involved in setting up, security, marshalling, police, cleaning etc."

Even now that the event has finished and the last visitor has left the car park, the behind-the-scenes team is still hard at work decommissioning the site, taking down the equipment and signs.

This year's show was two years in the planning, with a 150-page event management document covering everything from event communications to emergency contingency plans.

But the enthusiasm of Bournemouth residents certainly helped the plans along, said Mark.

"What was really encouraging was that before the event even happened people had an idea of what it was going to be like and were getting enthusiastic about it.

"If half the town didn't want it then it wasn't going to work."

The wheels have already been put in motion for the 2009 Air Festival and, although Mark said this year's event had gone "amazingly well", he hoped 2009 would be even bigger and better.

"It's proved that Bournemouth is almost the perfect place to stage a major event like this," he said.

"It's perhaps what resorts were built for - the seafront with the double-sized beach is just perfect - but the key thing after an event like this is getting all the feedback saying what worked and what we could improve on. We are never satisfied."

The majority of visitors, however, were perfectly satisfied by what they saw and it appears the pilots themselves were equally impressed.

"The crowds, setting and hospitality have been second to none," said Black Cats pilot Dave Lilly. "We can't wait for next year."

Stew Campbell, Tucano pilot, added: "It's great organisers were able to book the weather! We're looking forward to being back next year."