As the sun was setting over Sandown and the ramps were being dismantled last Sunday evening, we caught up with Nigel Howell, the man behind the ever-successful White Air Festival to find out how things had gone for him this year.
Nigel tells us that the festival is now in it’s 12th year, with it running for ten years in the winter, in August last year and now September this year. The operation has grown substantially, bringing more sports to the Island than ever before.
White Air has seen a massive growth in the number of members of the public taking part, with over 2500 ‘Having a Go’ this year.
As the festival has grown so has the offering, it now has a brilliant music element to it and lots going on for all the family to enjoy.
In fact this year it’s been a “perfect festival”.
Nigel tells us that they’ve achieved great results in all the top level sports bar the wind surfing (due to weather conditions) and hosted the European Thundercat Championships, the British Free Style Wind Surfing Championships and the British Paddle Board Championships, which if the water conditions are right, can be done by just about anyone.
We’d heard rumours over the weekend of a move to Brighton and Nigel was being a little elusive when we asked about his plans for next year (but very kindly he later gave us the exclusive once the final decision was made), but one thing was clear, 2009 was going to be a huge year for White Air.
Nigel went onto explain that despite what some people may think, running the festival is not about making money. As it is such an expensive festival to put on, hopefully the success of this year will ensure that they at least break even. However, unless they have major sponsors or major council backing (which they don’t) it doesn’t make any money.
No-one can deny that White Air is a fantastic advertisement for the Island and must be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, if not millions in advertising and a great boost the economy over the years. As Nigel says, it highlights the outdoors sports and natural resources that the Island has, which is not done by any other festival on the Island.
As well as the expense of the infrastructure, it takes eight days to build, there’s the three day event and then two days to pack down. Cue lots of very exhausted, but happy people.
Hear what else Nigel has to say by clicking on the play button below.
[audio:http://otw-audio.s3.amazonaws.com/white-air-2008-nigel-howell-end.mp3]
