Glenn Miller’s music “lives on” at a vintage festival on the site of the airfield he disappeared from 80 years ago, according to organisers.
In December 1944 the US airman and band leader boarded a UC-64A Norseman at RAF Twinwood, Bedfordshire, but the plane vanished over the English Channel and never reached its destination in France.
Twinwood Festival has taken place at the former airfield over the last 23 years.
“His music lives on; we have all ages here,” said host Lola Lamour.
“I’ve seen people grow up from little girls to teenagers at the festival and they know the music.
“They’ll now carry it on and it keeps in people’s minds.”
Originally known as The Glenn Miller Festival, the event hosts bands from around the world, performing music dating from the 1920s to 1960s.
Attendees dress up in vintage clothes and dance in some of the converted buildings and former hangars.
Bands will perform across 11 stages at the event and on Sunday The Glenn Miller Orchestra will perform.
Ms Lamour said: “I do think it keeps it going; young people like the old fashioned clothes and dressing up.
“It’s all the glamour; it’s nice escapism.”
Miller’s only outdoor show at a British base was at RAF Twinwood on August 27, 1944.
He had been based at Bedford during World War Two and often used the base with his band to fly and perform around the world.
Ms Lamour said: “It’s such a tragic tragic loss because he could have gone off to do so much more.
“He was helping in the war effort. He had to get a plane and he had to get over there… he was keeping everybody’s morale high and it was very important.
“There’s all sorts of theories about it, that it crashed from bad weather… they don’t really know because they never found it or anything of him.
“The history matters because most people that come are into vintage music and you then have that connection with Glenn Miller here.”
