PASSERS-BY were treated to a touch of wartime nostalgia outside the Randolph Hotel in Oxford.

There were Army personnel in Second World War uniforms, an RAF officer, a policeman, a spiv and a wartime lovely'.

They were taking part in a promotion evening at the hotel for this year's Fly To The Past festival, to be held at Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, on Sunday, July 22.

Representatives of leading organisations in the county were invited to hear details of the event, which is expected to attract a crowd of up to 25,000.

The festival will run from 9am to 9pm. The centrepiece will be a four-hour flying show with more than 40 aircraft, including Sopwiths and Fokkers in a Great War dogfight, a Battle of Britain display by Lancasters, Hurricanes and Spitfires, and a full Red Arrows' display.

Another feature will be a flight by a microlight piloted by Frenchman Christian Moullec, followed by a flock of geese.

All tickets bought in advance will help raise money for Helen and Douglas House hospices, and the Oxford Children's Hospital Campaign, which are the event's official charities.

Adult tickets are priced at £30 for the day-long festival and children under-16 get in free. No tickets are expected to be on sale on the day.

Visitors to the show will be invited to enter the best-dressed competition, with prizes including trips to Virgin Galactic's spaceport in New Mexico and worldwide tickets with Virgin Atlantic donated by the company's owner Sir Richard Branson.

Tickets to the show are available via the event website at www.flytothepast.com or by telephone on 01993 822822.