A double blow of washout weather and gloomy economy hit Cromer's summer show attendances this year.A packed audience for the final night of the13-week season heard that they were among 40,421 people to watch the Seaside Special this year.

A double blow of washout weather and gloomy economy hit Cromer's summer show attendances this year.

A packed audience for the final night of the

13-week season heard that they were among 40,421 people to watch the Seaside Special this year.

That is about 10pc down on last summer - but on target to meet organisers' expectations in difficult trading times.

Rory Holburn, commercial and operations director of Openwide International which

runs the pier, said nationally the entertainment industry was 15pc down.

Extra marketing had actually found 3,000 new showgoers through advanced group bookings, but the August washout put a major dent in the “walk up” trade of trippers making an unplanned visit to the show.

“There were fewer people in town in the key six weeks at the height of summer,” he added.

Some careful balancing of budgets would have to be done to ensure cost controls did not disappoint audiences, and there were plans to come up with new pricing packages that meant most ticket prices would be pegged.