Four Blue Angels jets fly in line with one another during Saturday’s performance. Nina Mahaleris/The Times Record
Officials are calling the Great State of Maine Airshow in Brunswick last weekend a success after roughly 20,000 people attended and about $30,000 was raised for charity.
The show at Brunswick Executive Airport at the former Navy base cost roughly $750,000 to organize and implement.
Tickets sold out for Saturday with around 11,000 attendants, and about 9,000 people came on Sunday, according to Air Show Network President Jim Breen.
The event was headlined by the Blue Angels, the Navy’s flight demonstration team known for close-flying and acrobatic maneuvers. The previous airshow took place in 2017. One scheduled for 2020 was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Breen, the event was intentionally smaller than past years to limit crowd density amid the COVID-19 pandemic and provide a more enjoyable experience for guests. The 2017 air show drew in about 35,000 people over two days, The Times Record reported.
“The execution was flawless, and the flying operations were just amazing,” Breen said. “We had great weather and so when you put the convergence of those things together, we were pretty fortunate the way the show turned out.”
The process is already underway to bring the Blue Angels back to Brunswick in 2023, Breen said, and an announcement could occur in December.
In 2011, the Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority was charged with guiding the redevelopment and civilian use of the retired military base. According to the authority’s executive director, Steve Levesque, the airshow raised roughly $30,000 for a charitable fund account, which now sits at around $40,000 in total.
The funds were raised through leasing the airport for the show, and recipients will likely be chosen and awarded in November. One past example of a donation, Levesque said, was paying for a high school’s band equipment.
“It’s really based upon impact,” Levesque said. “We try to spread the money around, we try to give as many grants as we can to different organizations in the community.”
The biggest challenge over the weekend, according to Levesque, was managing traffic flow into and out of the base.
According to Brunswick Chief of Police Scott Stewart, on Saturday traffic was backed up to Maine Street on Bath Road.
“The only way to get onto the base was from Admiral Fitch,” Stewart said in an email. “Sunday was much better and we didn’t have nearly the traffic back-ups or related complaints.”
Susan Bridge of the Brunswick Visitor Center estimated that about 50 people came through the train station on Sunday afternoon — about a 50% increase of a normal weekend.
Bridge said that the increased traffic likely came as a result of the airshow and the Thomas Point Beach Bluegrass Festival that also took place over the weekend.
In an email, Brunswick Economic Development Director Sally Costello said that the event brings great exposure to all that Brunswick has to offer.
“The addition of thousands of visitors over the weekend brought an influx of spending that has significant direct and indirect economic impacts,” Costello said.
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