...and Organizers Worried That Nobody Would Show Up

Airshows aren't dead, despite the best efforts of the uninformed press, the FBI, the TSA, and befuddled local officials. Last weekend's Greenville (SC) Air Festival, which featured the Air Force Thunderbirds and the Green Beret jump team, flooded the Donaldson Center.

According to the Greenville News, the resulting throngs created, "...a massive traffic jam that snarled cars and trucks and forced some people to park wherever they could and walk miles to the air show's location."

Now, some of the show's 60,000 estimated ticket-buyers want their $20 back, saying the show's planners didn't do their jobs, and the police traffic detail was too small, and the volunteers weren't trained, and...

The paper notes that "Chuck Hodge, executive director of Greenville Events, said about 40,000 watched the show from inside the Donaldson Center Saturday afternoon while another 15,000 caught it from outside. 'We honestly just got overwhelmed,'" he told reporter Paul Alongi.

People parked everywhere. Some 5000 cars made it into the real parking lot; others stopped by the roadside.

What was the problem? When something's this screwed up, you've gotta look for government involvement. Sure enough, the paper noted, "Part of the problem was that organizers had to switch where ticket holders entered at 1 p.m... The main entrance was on Delaware Street. But organizers had to reroute drivers to a narrower road to comply with Federal Aviation Administration regulations on where an air show audience could sit..."

It figures, eh?

FMI: about the show