Snowbirds, CF-18 to highlight air show
Popular Friday night performance to return as well as reduced rate for Sunday
The Canadian Forces Snowbirds and CF-18 will be flying over Lethbridge for an extra day during the upcoming 25th Lethbridge International Air Show.
Marc Ouellette, the air show vicepresident, announced on Thursday they will continue with the Friday night performance and reduced ticket prices will be offered for Sunday.
Prior to 2015, the International Air Show took place on the weekend, but organizers felt Sunday was under attended.
To battle that, they removed Sunday from the itinerary and introduced an evening performance for Friday, which proved to be extremely successful.
“Doing it on Friday night was a bigger crowd than Saturday, so we’re going to extend the night show a little this year. We’re going to have a little bit more pyro in the dark, so it’s going to be very exciting. We have a good show lined up and we’re just waiting for a few more confirmations at this point as to who will be flying on Friday night,” said Ouellette.
There were some issues regarding parking during the last event, especially following the evening performance as Ouellette noted it took about 90 minutes to get off the grounds. That’s why they’ll be offering a free shuttle bus service everyday to and from the Enmax Centre.
“They’ll bring you right to the security gates at the air show and you don’t have to worry about trying to get out of the air show afterwards,” said Ouellette.
This year, they wanted to do something special for families as Ouellette admitted it can get expensive when there’s a few family members attending.
“What we did was come up with a smaller show on Sunday, it will be the CF-18 and the Snowbirds flying for the 150th of Canada as well as quite a reduced price, about a third of the cost per person and a family package that will make it affordable for anyone to come out.”
The Snowbirds and CF-18 Demonstration are in high demand this year as Canada is celebrating it’s 150th birthday and that’s the main reason why the air show will be taking place on July 14 to 16 — two weeks earlier than usual.
“We started working on this air show three years ago. Because we’re one of the largest air shows in Canada, we usually take priority over smaller air shows,” said Ouellette. “We didn’t know what our dates were going to be until about six months ago. They told us which dates were available and we went along with them as well.”
Tickets are expected to go on sale in May. More information can be found online at www.lethbridgeairshow.ca.
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