Tue, Apr 29, 2003
...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?
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