It has attracted hundreds of thousands of people to Lowestoft, for a land, sea and air extravaganza.

But the end of an era was marked in town today, as the Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival company sold off its last remaining assets to bring the curtain down on a popular event.

Merchandise including t-shirts, mugs, caps and programmes were all available at a table top sale at Colville House – signifying the end of a show that has enchanted people over 16 years.

The youth and community centre benefited from the sale, which featured about 15 stalls and the special airshow memorabilia table. The airshow began in 1997 and in 2004, the Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival Ltd was established to take over the two-day show, which had previously been run by Waveney District Council.

With the last-ever airshow in 2012 being held over a weekend, bad weather left organisers with a £60,000 gap in funding – and they were unable to find the money for a wet weather contingency fund, meaning they had to wind the company up.

Brian Hunter, director of the Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival, said: 'It is the end of an era, but there is a little bit of a silver lining as all funds will go to this really great community centre here at Colville House, where we have 60 young people regularly turning out two nights a week, and the centre is also used by local clubs.'