City officials are confirming suspicions, the Lincoln Air Show this weekend was a sky high success.
“We’re thrilled with the turnout this weekend at both days of the air show,” Lincoln Chamber of Commerce President Jason Ball told KLIN News, “Preliminary estimates are giving us about 300,000 in attendance, and we’ll be able to solidify that soon.”
Over a quarter of a million visitors came through the LNK Airport’s tarmac, to see the US Navy Blue Angels take to the skies. With these sheer numbers, the local city economy was poised to benefit greatly.
“I personally met some folks that came out of Cincinnati, Ohio, for the air show, and we had other people driving in from other states, and so they’re staying in hotels when they’re here. They’re eating at restaurants and hopefully spending some entertainment money here in Lincoln,” said Ball.
However, Ball reminded us that its not all about the money, “But even for folks coming from much closer destinations, it’s just a really great community event for them to engage in… We were able to welcome the delegation from the Czech Republic, to celebrate the partnership that the Czech Republic has with the State of Texas and with the State of Nebraska. A lot of celebrating what countries and communities can do when you work together, and I think everybody in attendance got to experience that.”
The record extreme heat wave of last week and Saturday morning rainstorm gave some pause to event planners… but its seems that weather-deity’s must be Blue Angels fans, as things cleared up just in time for the show to start.
“We were so relieved about that…and Saturday, we had great cloud cover most of the day that really allowed us to keep temperatures cool. All our volunteers did a great job of helping people access water and get to where they needed to go. .. We had 200 volunteers for each day that helped make it all happen, as well as all the men and women in our police, fire departments, and National Guard that helped out there over the weekend,” said Ball.
“It was a huge effort, but a great win for the community of Lincoln,” concluded Ball. Lincoln will experience a microcosm of the air show’s tourism flux, this week, with Volleyball Day set to bring in 90,000 people on Wednesday.