No more Oostwold Airshows

Sad news has come from the organizers of the annual Oostwold Airshow (the Netherlands). For a number of years the airshow in one of the northern provinces of the country was a public magnet in the Pentecost weekend. But obviously the COVID-19 pandemic made it impossible to organize it in the past years. The 2019 edition was the tenth and final one.

“It is with a heavy heart” according to the organization, “that we were forced to take this decision”. There were several factors that have contributed to their decision: declining interest of sponsors, increasing costs and increasing difficulty in finding volunteers.

Luckily there are plans for alternative, smaller and (budgetary) less risky aviation events. The organization is preparing a two-day fly-in event in the summer, while the ‘Dutch Open National Aerobatic Championship’ is planned in the autumn of 2024.

It is good to know that there will still be activity on ‘the Greenest airport of the Netherlands’ but at the same time we will surely miss the wide variety of warbirds that the Oostwold Airshow was able to attract in the past.

Photo: Gert Jan Mentink