HEAR YE! HEAR YE!

August 2010 --  A weekend attendance estimated in excess of 70,000 (40,000 on Saturday, 30,000 on Sunday) showed up last weekend to watch the United States Navy Blue Angels along with a star-studded lineup of performers at the Boston – Portsmouth Air Show.  The Blue Angels headlined the 2010 Boston – Portsmouth Air Show Saturday and yesterday at the Portsmouth International Airport at Pease. (Continued below) 

The attendance was nearly twice what show organizers had projected.  While there have been much smaller air shows at Pease in recent years, this was the first year that show organizers attempted to create a show on a much larger scale.  The greater than expected turnout caused some backups for late arrivers and many parking lots were filled to capacity on Saturday.  The show also reported that some areas of the air show had long lines for vendors at Saturday’s show.  While the show’s infrastructure was pushed to its limits, traffic and fans were orderly and the vast majority of fans gained easy if somewhat measured access and exit to enjoy the show.   

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[Editor’s note: This official press release isn’t precisely true. Our MEDIA car waited three solid hours in the parking from 5pm to 8pm with thousands of others before moving slowly out of the airport and into the slow-moving traffic of Pease. Traffic was so slow, with thousands of cars stuck for hours on Saturday, that we were able to walk two miles to Paddy’s, order and consume a drink and chowder, and walk two miles back to the parking lot to find the line still slowly exiting the lot and our neighbors still in line. We noted more than one altercation between traffic controllers and frustrated drivers, but the attendees were amazingly patient overall. One group of young men stranded like us for three hours shouted “Free! Free at last!” as they passed the gates of the airport and onto the streets of Pease Tradeport. – JDR]   

 “We knew pre-show ticket sales were strong,” said Michael Kaufman, CEO of the Daniel Webster Council, Boy Scouts of America, “but we were very surprised by the huge amount of walk-up ticket sales.”  The show offered pre-show discounted tickets online until the evening before the show and heavily promoted online pre-show ticket sales.          

“We really are grateful for the overwhelming support this community gave to the show this weekend,” said Steve Wade, CEO of the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire.  “While there were a few hiccups, we are very proud of how our workers, volunteers, and safety forces handled a much larger surge of fans than what we expected.”  

Kaufman added that the show made adjustments to their pre-show traffic and parking plan after Saturday’s show to help alleviate congestion on Sunday and the show’s concessionaire added capacity for Sunday’s show to cut down on vendors’ lines.  “In conjunction with our public safety forces we made some adjustments to our traffic and parking patterns and we trucked in two additional trailers of bottled water and other concessions.  It looks as though the tweaks to the system helped minimize problems and eased traffic flow.”          

In addition to the U.S. Navy Blue Angels, the show’s blockbuster lineup also included the Brazilian Air Force Smoke Squadron, the United States Army Golden Knights, the United States Navy F-18 Super Hornet Demo Team, The United States Air Force F-15 & F-16 Demo Teams, Sean D. Tucker, Mike Goulian, John Klatt, Rob Holland and the B-25 “Panchito.”          

As many fans exited the show both Saturday and Sunday, they encouraged the Brain Injury Association and the Boys Scouts of America to make this an annual event.