Worthwhile Journey

DEAN Brockway's ambitious Airfest - a combination of tribute act, music festival and airshow - brought the X-Factor to Huntingdon on Saturday.

Journey South, the Middlesbrough brothers whose debut album has outsold that of Shayne Ward and Andy Abrahams, the singers who relegated them to third place in the television talent show, thrilled a sparse crowd of about 200 people in the rain.

They came out at 6.30pm - not, as predicted, to open the event at noon - and a

little croaky after returning that day from sell-out gigs in Sweden.

Nevertheless, the quality, humour and enthusiasm which endeared them to millions of armchair viewers was evident and their populist nature was reinforced when they did a two-song acoustic encore because: "It cannae have been nice waiting for us in this wet."

Carl and Andy Pemberton were introduced by their father, Tony, who spoke about their "unbelievable" year. The duo rattled through most of their debut album, said there would be more original songs on the follow-up and ended in arm-waving style with The Beatles' Let It Be.

After such a disappointing turnout for his first event, geography teacher Dean Brockway may have to think again about this concept, which was to raise money for Unicef and funds for disasters across the world.

Whatever he decides, what was clear is that the racecourse would be a great venue for more events like these - with up to 4,000 people being catered for on a flat grassland that's easy to find and only an hour or so from London, East Anglia and the Midlands. Mr Brockway said: "It was a shame that the crowd was smaller than anticipated. However, all those who did attend were treated to a mix of excellent live music and thrilling air displays. We are still calculating the money raised for our charities.