A U.S. Marine Corps AV-8B Harrier performs at the Cleveland National Air Show. This year's Cleveland National Air Show features a slew of exciting aviation spectacles at Burke Lakefront Airport. (Joshua Gunter)
(Tribune News Service) — Labor Day weekend in these parts is synonymous with the Cleveland Air Show and 2024 is no exception. Headlined by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, the aerial extravaganza returns for a three-day engagement Saturday, August 31 – Monday, September 2 at Burke Lakefront Airport.
Celebrating 60 “Loud & Proud” years, festival organizers have crammed the festivities full of thrill aviation fans – capping it off with six “Blues” demonstration pilots in their F/A-18 Super Hornets soaring through choreographed aerobatics demos along with team and solo maneuvers.
They’ll also have their fan favorite C-130 Hercules nicknamed “Fat Albert” in the mix.
Cleveland is among 30 select U.S. cities chosen to host the Blue Angels this year.
The decades old tradition has its roots in the old Cleveland National Air Races and has long featured military jet demos, gravity defying stunt aerobatics, parachuting and more.
In more recent years, it has also treated fans inside the Burke gates to interactive exhibits and a robust amount of display aircraft – along with education components and even comedy.
This year’s “high-energy civilian and military performances” will also include flybys of the F-15 “Strike Eagle” from Louisiana’s 159th Fighter Wing of their Air National Guard and the C-17 West Coast Demo Team and Boeing Globemaster III in rare demonstration.
There’s also a “farewell tour” demo of the A-10 (used for close air support of ground troops), the Northern Stars Aeroteam from Canada, Bill Stein’s color-changing Edge 540, the “Franklin’s Flying Circus” comedy act and Hot Streak II, a Jet Truck which must be seen (and heard) to be believed.
Speaking of seen and heard, two incredibly familiar faces – actors portraying “Ice” and “Mav” from a certain 80s blockbuster film – will also be milling about the show this year. Let’s just say they’ll have you humming Kenny Loggins and looking for a volleyball faster than you can say “Jester’s dead!”
No winging it with rich history, high-flying tradition
Planning for all these Cleveland Air Show attractions takes a lot of preparation. Air Show personnel starts at least 12-18 months in advance of the Labor Day weekend showtime – though with some of the moving parts involved, it’s closer to two years in pre-production.
“There isn’t much time to sit back and admire what’s been done,” said Cleveland Air Show executive director Kim Dell in an interview with Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer.
Dell likened the festivities to when a Broadway show or play ends its run. They “strike the set” almost immediately, to allow normal air traffic at the airport to resume. Then on to the ledgers.
“We wrap the event, spent the next several weeks reconciling admissions, paying bills and sorting out what worked and could be improved upon logistically and then its literally on to the next one.”
There has been some confusion about who puts on the Cleveland Air Show every year according to Dell. The multi-day event is a “financially self-sufficient endeavor put on by a not-for-profit organization” that rises and falls with market forces, weather societal headwinds and scheduling.
(Case in point: a planned U.S. Marine Corps’ F-35 Lightning II demonstration will not take place as originally scheduled).
During the pandemic, organizers grounded the long-running event. Bad weather has offered similar challenges. If you think that going up in one of the jets could be nerve-wracking, Dell said you should know that folks on the ground are biting their nails, too – hoping all goes off without a hitch.
“I try not to even look at the weather until the week before, if not the week of the Air Show,” Dell laughed. “When we put that much time into planning and you have something like the pandemic happen, or bad weather wipe out all your hard work and gate admissions, it’s tough.”
Even though Cleveland has one of the larger and more storied air shows in the U.S. and is accommodated as such, Dell said that despite planning there’s still no guarantee that a jet team will be available when needed.
Dell also said that contrary to urban legend, jet teams and planes “don’t just show up” for free:
“A jet team is about six figures out the door.”
720 days until “Wheels Up!”
Two years out from a Cleveland Air Show, Dell and the organizers fill out what’s called a Department of Defense (or DOD) 2535 form – “Request for Military Aerial Support.” Once that happens, requests are made for jet teams, Tactical Demonstration (or TAC demos) and several factors are taken into consideration, including recruiting for the branch of service requested.
“It’s not like you just call up the Blue Angels and say, ‘Hey, come to Cleveland!’ We had to submit our 2026 DOD forms by July 1,” she said. “In that sense, we are already thinking about 2026 and our 2024 fans haven’t even hit the turnstiles yet.”
Dell said that ticketing logistics is a whole other stunt flight.
“Even though we have online ticketing, it can be more complex than hard-stock tickets. Because you now must build up this whole internet [outpost] to accommodate admissions,” she said.
“Not to mention electricity, once you get away from the [Burke] buildings a bit. There are a lot of logistics at play, building infrastructure… the organizational flow chart can get very complicated.”
Ticket sales directly support event production costs. The team then builds a budget – which is approved by the organization’s board of trustees – and then “we stick to that budget.”
Dell said that aside from all the planes in the air, there are a couple dozen planes on “static display,” with solicitations for those beginning in February. Those require their own unique planning strategy.
“We start with all the different bases and museums around the country that have planes that can fly in,” she said. “After all that, we work with the Federal Aviation Administration and have big meetings with the U.S. Coast Guard to keep the waterways clear for us. So, a lot of moving parts.”
The only thing missing? Santa’s sleigh
For as intense as the last 30-45 days before showtime goes, Dell and her small but mighty team love putting the works in overdrive. The wide-eyed, mouth agape reactions from attendees – who come from “dozens of states and several different countries” – makes it all worthwhile.
“We turn the airport into an amusement park for 60,000 – 100,000 people and we do it pretty quickly. But we wouldn’t trade that for anything. You’re kind of like Santa Claus, working 365 days a year toward this thing that comes once a year and gets everyone so excited.”
The Cleveland Air Show is presented by Discount Drug Mart and takes place Saturday, August 31 – Monday, September 2. Tickets and on-site parking for the events are only available in advance, through their online ticketing portal at clevelandairshow.com/ticketing. There are no gate sales.
More details on (and tickets for) the Cleveland Air can be found by visiting clevelandairshow.com.
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