Coverage of Friday's Blue Angels Pensacola Beach Air Show
4 p.m. | Beach traffic flowing well
ECSO spokeswoman Sgt. Melony Peterson said that traffic leaving Pensacola Beach is a "little heavy" but still flowing well as of 3:40 p.m. Friday as airshow spectators began to leave the beach.
"That means that it is heavy, but it's not backing up," Peterson said.
Friday coverage of Blue Angels:Pensacola waited three years for a complete Blue Angels show. It was worth the wait!
2:45 p.m. | Blue Angels inspire new generation
Fighter jets soaring, swooping and roaring overheard can be an inspiring sight — particularly for a child.
Whatever they may have previously wanted to be when they grew up, many of the children who were on the beach Friday walked away from the Pensacola Beach Airshow wanting to one day become fighter pilots.
“I like the Blue Angels,” said 5-year-old Bailey Brogdon. “I want to be on one.”
Brogdon donned super-cool sunglasses as she gazed up at the circling smoke trails left by diving aircraft.
“I’ve been on an airplane and a train,” she said.
Brogdon explained that she much preferred flying the airplane over her experience riding the train “because it goes up and down,” she said.
A little further down the beach, 8-year-old Talon Richards was eating a grape snow cone and giving off a slightly shy vibe.
But the boy’s stoic expression quickly blossomed into a smile as soon as someone told him that he had the look of a future fighter pilot. The thought even turned his attention away from the cone.
When asked if he thought that he would make a good fighter pilot, Richards nodded his head vigorously, and he said he wanted to be a fighter pilot “so I could be in airshows and all that.”
The airshow on Friday was Richards' second time seeing the Blue Angels in person. He also attended the 2019 Pensacola Beach Airshow, and his favorite part was watching the Blues fly in a diamond formation.
A diamond formation is “when they fly apart and are going 500 miles per hour,” Richards explained.
For a child this young, Richards was very informed about flight formation patterns and he knew it. He was proud of it.
Down by the water, Jennifer Perry explained that she and her husband, Scott, were both from Austin, Texas and staying in Navarre on vacation with their niece, 6-year-old Cally Perry, and nephew, 12-year-old Camden Perry.
They had been over in Pensacola on a Friday morning dolphin-sighting boat ride and had known nothing about an airshow scheduled to take place in the afternoon but opted to hang around Pensacola Beach instead of returning to Navarre as soon as they learned about the show.
“We were in the boat and saw the planes flying overhead, and instead of looking at the dolphins, everyone turned and looked at the planes, like ‘Oh, wow, look at that,’” Jennifer Perry said.
1:45 p.m.| Lifeguards clear water as Blue Angels prepare to fly
The civilian acts have completed their performances, which allowed spectators to take a quick dip in the water before lifeguards cleared the area. As is custom, the Coast Guard sets up a boundary below the Blue Angels air space. No one is allowed in the water during the Blue Angels performance.
The weather is ideal for the Blue Angels, which means spectators will see the first full show since 2018 after rain forced a compact show that year. The Blue Angels are scheduled to fly at 2 p.m.
Leading up the performance, the day could not have gone more smooth, officials say.
The Escambia County Sheriff’s Office had not responded to any major incidents on Pensacola Beach as of 1 p.m. Friday.
Fat Albert:Here's why Fat Albert didn't fly at the 2021 Blue Angels dress rehearsal show Friday
Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons told the News Journal that everything was “going really well.”
The sheriff was joined by ECSO Chief Deputy Tommi Lyter and ECSO neighborhood specialist Ronnie Rivera for a quick trip to check out the beach conditions Friday afternoon.
ECSO spokeswoman Sgt. Melony Peterson told the News Journal, “Everything has been smooth, real smooth.
“We had some traffic going to the beach in the morning, but it has pretty much cleared up,” Peterson continued. “Driving though Gulf Breeze was a breeze.”
12:30 p.m. | Restaurants 'happily overrun'
Pensacola Beach bars and restaurants are happily overrun on one of their biggest weekends of the year with people flocking to their tables after a year of uncertainty caused by both the pandemic and Pensacola Bay Bridge’s outage.
“It feels like normal,” said Amy Martin, family partner at McGuire’s Management Group, which owns both Flounder’s and CRABS.
Martin said the Blue Angels beach show is the one weekend staff knows they can’t take vacation as it’s an all-hands-on-deck weekend.
“There were record numbers Thursday, I don’t think there was any part of the beach not being used whether it was being walked on, laid out on, or boated on,” she said.
Casino Beach Bar and Grill didn’t allow walk-ins Friday and instead sold tickets for access to a private event which eventually sold out. General manager Tara Vesousa said staff was busy with a full occupancy.
“It’s busy day but we’ve planned for it all, we plan most of the year for this,” she said.
Farther down the beach at Peg Leg Pete’s, manager Mitchell Glucroft said the restaurant has been a mix of regulars and tourists drawn in for the Blues weekend.
He said the crowd there is just out of sight of the main air show, but gets an alternate view as the Blues fly over from the base or planes turn around to make their next move for the air show.
“You get kind of a cool view, and there’s definitely a lot of people out there enjoying it,” he said.
Noon | Beach workers arrive early to beat traffic
Not everyone who showed up at Pensacola Beach on Friday morning was there just to watch the airshow.
Andrew Keith of Pensacola traveled to the beach Friday morning to work at Flounder's Chowder House where he’s employed as a food prepper.
“When prep truck comes with food and stuff inside of it, I take the stuff out of the truck and take it inside,” Keith explained.
Fearful of traffic, Keith arrived at Pensacola Beach at 7 a.m. to ensure that he would be able to make his 12 p.m. shift on time. He spent the next five hours waiting on the top of his van.
“Yeah, I’m just waiting,” he said. “Just waiting to go to work.”
Midmorning Friday, anyone who happened to be wandering around the main Casino Beach parking lots, underneath the beach ball water tower, could easily spot Keith laid back in a folding chair, reading and sipping water out of a Styrofoam cup on top of his van.
“I saw the construction signs go up on the shoulder of the road yesterday — you know, right after you drive past the tolls — near the second bridge over there, and I thought maybe it would be backed up,” Keith said, about his reasons for arriving so early.
Fortunately, he said, he brought a good book along for the ride.
11:30 a.m. | Water cleared
Lifeguards started clearing people out of the water off Pensacola Beach at 11:30 a.m. Friday in preparation for the Blue Angel’s performance at 2 p.m.
Escambia County Water Safety Chief Dave Greenwood told the News Journal that it had been a safe morning at the beach, and lifeguards had not had to rescue anyone from the Gulf by the time that people were asked to exit the water.
“It’s been good so far,” Greenwood said. “We have 50-plus lifeguards out here today working. They are watching the water. West Florida Hospital is out here working if they are need.”
He added, “EMS has a mobile tent set up, and they are out here patrolling in their UTVs as well.”
One person drowned on Thursday, however, about an hour before the show began. The person was in the water near Portofino and outside of the area patrolled by the Coast Guard and lifeguards.
Drowning Thursday:One person dead after drowning at Pensacola Beach just before Blue Angels practice show
In addition to water safety, Greenwood said that everyone at the airshow should be mindful of the heat.
“The seas are relatively calm today,” he said. “We have a green flag flying, but it is extremely sticky and humid out here. People need to hydrate because the heat is going to be a factor.”
The heat index at 11 a.m. on Friday was 100 degrees.
Greenwood asked that everyone on Pensacola Beach “please make sure” that they drink lots of water.
11:15 a.m. | Civilian acts begin
The civilian aerobatic acts portion of the Blues Angels dress rehearsal kicked off just after 11:15 a.m. Friday to a crowd packed with thousands of beachgoers, some of whom had set up their spot before sunrise.
The crowd cheered and waved as the first planes flew overhead, marking the kickoff to the day’s events that will culminate at 2 p.m. with the Blue Angels show.
National Weather Service Mobile’s Pensacola Airport station showed a heat index of 100 degrees as of 11 a.m. and stifling humidity clouded the beach, but the overcast skies gave beachgoers some reprieve from the sun and a clearer view of the planes overhead.
10:40 a.m. | Ferries popular to avoid traffic
Quietwater Beach lived up to its name Friday morning as dozens of families were able to spread out and enjoy the calm shore unlike the crowds on the gulf side that were beginning to get crammed in ahead of the 11 a.m. civilian show.
The families set up tents, beach games and ran along the boardwalk, many planning to spend the day at the more relaxed beach before walking over to watch the Blue Angels in the afternoon.
Clarissa Valdez and her family took the ferry from Pensacola to the beach Friday morning to avoid the traffic for their first air show.
“We moved here about a year ago and heard about this, we heard it’s really nice and he’s obsessed with planes and the beach so we’re excited,” Valdez said, pointing to her toddler playing in the nearby sand.
Pensacola Bay Cruises general manager Joe Asebedo said the ferries have been reaching capacity all morning, though they are still restricted to 75% capacity due to COVID. Asebedo said some passengers have had to change their departure to a later time, but nobody has been turned away yet.
A special weekend schedule includes hourly routes between downtown and Pensacola Beach starting at 8 a.m., with the last return time of 8:30 p.m. both days. Price is $13 each way, with children 2 and under riding for free. Return routes from Pensacola Beach to downtown begin at 3:30 p.m.
10 a.m. | Stars and stripes pepper the beach
There is a patriotic ambiance on Pensacola Beach today evidenced by the smattering of American flags that airshow attendees have been flying beside their beach umbrellas all morning.
Whether printed on towels or patterned on swimming trunks, one only needs to turn their head to see stars and stripes Friday morning on the beach.
But perhaps the biggest American flag flying in a prominent position on the beach Friday morning was owned Chris Marshall of Milton, who said he has not missed a Blue Angels show on Pensacola Beach in 27 years and flown his flag — the exact same flag — at every single show that he has attended.
The flag was approximately 18-feet tall and stuck into the sand next to Marshall’s beach tent and cooler full of Coors Light directly in front of Casino Beach Plaza as of 9:45 a.m. Friday.
“We flew it every year for the Blues,” Marshall explained. “We sometimes might get it out for our stuff that we do at the house for the Fourth of July, but all in all, this flag was probably not been flown more than 50 times since we’ve had it.”
The flag sports a picture of an American eagle and on Friday, Marshall had stuck to smaller flags in the sand flanking the big one’s base.
“My kids used to stay on the sound side,” Marshall said, about when he used to bring his kids along with him to the Pensacola Airshow when they were little. “When they came over to his beachside, they said they could always find me by looking for the flag.
“They’d see it, come over and get a Gatorade or something.”
9:30 | Thursday Blue Angel traffic surpassed 2019 peak
Thursday’s Blue Angel practice saw more than 17,700 vehicles cross the Bob Sikes Bridge into Pensacola Beach, already surpassing the number of vehicles on the island for the 2019 show.
SRIA officials say it’s hard to predict what Friday will bring, but they say Thursday numbers are promising for a big weekend.
Photos:Blue Angels fly in their first full Pensacola Beach air show since hiatus due to COVID-19
In 2019 when the Blue Angels ran a condensed show due to weather, officials recorded around 17,500 vehicles on the island for the Thursday practice. The year prior, in 2018 which was the last full show, saw a much higher 19,063 vehicles.
The Friday show is historically relatively close to the Thursday traffic numbers, and in 2018, 19,629 vehicles crossed the bridge Friday with another 17,308 in 2019.
ECSO spokeswoman Sgt. Melanie Peterson said the Three Mile Bridge is still flowing smoothly as of 9:30 a.m. Friday, but now that the Casino Beach parking lot is full, drivers should be cautious of parking restrictions.
9 a.m. | Marines look for recruits at show
The U.S. Marines are here!
Staff Sgt. Steven Riscoe and Sgt. James Harrison from the Marine Corps Recruiting Substation Pensacola manned a booth at Casino Beach on Friday morning equipped with a pullup bar.
“We’re out here to try and meet the community and let them know the marines are here in Pensacola and to find out who can do the most pull ups, who can do more than and beat a marine,” Riscoe said.
As of 8:45 a.m. Friday, the most pullups done in a row by a civilian at Pensacola Beach was 16.
“But we had a marine out here who did 25,” Riscoe said. “So …”
Suddenly, Riscoe was interrupted in his explanation of the challenge.
“Excuse me,” Karen Lewis called out. “Um, can I take a picture with you guys? Will you pose for a picture with me?”
“Of course,” Harrison said, as he and Riscoe moved to stand of either side of the woman and posed for the picture.
When asked why she had wanted a picture with the Marines, Lewis said, laughing, “I just love a man in uniform, and I’m old and don’t have too much going.”
“But! She’s going to have a good day today!” interjected Terri Lions, her friend who took the picture.
After the two women walked away smiling, Riscoe explained that he had never personally setup a recruiting booth at the Pensacola Airshow before.
“But I know that we usually drum up a lot of interest from events like this with a lot of turnout,” he said. “Guys will come up and say, ‘I’ve been thinking about joining up for a while but don’t know any information about how.’ And we’ll say, ‘Well, I think we can help you.’”
8:30 a.m. | Parking lots full
The Casino Beach parking lot was full by 8:20 a.m. Friday, sending beachgoers farther afield to snag a spot on the sand. That's a slow start to the day compared to past years. The lot filled up in 2019, the last show, by 6 a.m.
The Santa Rosa Island Authority trolleys began running between the Casino Beach area and the outer lots at 7 a.m. and will continue through the day.
The SRIA predicts huge crowds this year for what is expected to be the first full air show since 2018. Storms caused an abbreviated show in 2019, and the pandemic caused the show’s cancellation in 2020.
8:15 a.m. | What's the best souvenir on the beach?
Anyone wanting to buy a souvenir Friday to commemorate that time, way when back in 2021, when they went to Pensacola Beach to watch the Blue Angels fly in the airshow will not have a hard time finding something to buy.
Vendors who have set up shop at Casino Beach are expecting a big day of sales.
Blue Angels hats don’t just come in blue. There are pink, dark green and yellow Blue Angel-themed head wares aplenty. Visors on sale Friday picture Super Hornet fighters overtop red, white and blue backgrounds. And, of course, there are shot glasses, mugs and aviator sunglass displayed in beach booths, too.
Terry Hynds, the vice president of Airware Inc., was managing three booths Friday morning with big blue banners that each advertised “Blue Angels Souvenirs.”
Airware Inc. has been designing Blue Angel Airshow shirts since 1999.
“We come every year,” Hynds said. “We quadrupled our Thursday sale record out here yesterday. Usually, Thursdays are quiet, and it’s just the locals here. But when we had four times our record sales, yeah, we’re definitely expecting a big day today.”
As of 7:30 a.m. Friday, Hynds said his best seller has been his booths’ newest Airshow shirt that sports pictures of the new fighters that will be featured in this year’s show and the new “Fat Albert” plane.
“We have a new Airshow shirt every year,” Hynds said. “People love them. It’s like a collector’s item. They keep them like shot glasses.”
He added, “I’ll see people still wearing their shirts from 1999.”
Although, not a best seller – yet – Hynds particularly likes the original design of one of his t-shirt types that depicts an image of the Three Mile Bridge being torn apart by Godzilla and says, “2020 Barge Demolition team.”
“See,” Hynds said. “We crossed out the word ‘demonstration’ and wrote over ‘demolition.’”
“Anybody who lived here over the last nine months can relate to it,” he added. “The locals come up and get a kick out of it, but tourists don’t understand.”
But souvenirs are not the only thing for sale at the beach. After all, people have to eat.
Ryan and Mika Wells drove all the way from Dublin, Georgia to set up their drink stand, “Tropical Smashers,” where they sell non-alcoholic pineapple-based drinks.
According to Ryan Wells, his businesses’ signature drink is “So nice we had to name it nice.”
“You get to try it before you by it. Guaranteed to take you from peaches to beaches – a sip of paradise in every cup,” Ryan Wells added, laughing. “You can tell, I’ve done this before, huh?”
Thursday coverage
New jets, new Fat Albert and new boss:75th Blue Angels beach show filled with firsts
Thursday tragedy:One person dead after drowning at Pensacola Beach just before Blue Angels practice show
Super Hornets:Blue Angels' new jets a 'little bit faster, little bit bigger, little bit louder'
Having never brought their business to the Pensacola Beach Airshow before, the Wells said that they didn’t know what to expect for sales on Friday.
“But we have 300 gallons of lemonade to get rid of, if that tells you anything,” Ryan Wells said, still laughing.
One booth over, local artist Rhea Kessler, had fit three of her businesses into a single booth selling original paintings, oyster shell art, snacks and drinks and CBD oil.
“We are expecting a big day,” she said.
7 a.m. | Casino Beach traffic picks up
Escambia County Sheriffs Office spokeswoman Sgt. Melanie Peterson said as of 7 a.m. traffic was flowing smoothly onto the beach and there hadn’t been any issues, though she urged beachgoers to park only in authorized areas.
Pensacola Police Department spokesman Mike Wood said the same about the Pensacola Bay Bridge.
Traffic was getting heavier into the Casino Beach parking lot as the sun rose, but as of 7 a.m. there are still spaces available.
Javaris Bennett was unloading the car with family at the Casino Beach lot early Friday morning after reading online posts about how packed the beach’s parking lots get. The family is from Minnesota and hasn’t been to a Blues show before but wanted to take a beach vacation and see the air show.
Farther down the row, Derek Everhardt was with a group of friends unloading a wagon full of drinks and chairs.
The group is from Louisiana and South Carolina but Everhardt grew up seeing the Blue Angels and now lives in Pensacola.
“Originally we started coming to Pensacola for the beach and then we discovered the Blue Angels and just fell in love,” he said.
More:Meet the 98- and 101-year-old World War II veterans flying in Friday's Blue Angels show
The group would usually rent a beach condo for the weekend when they lived out of state, but now Everhardt lives in the city so he packed up earlier than usual to get a parking spot before 6:30 a.m.
Gulf Shores resident Rich Nolte was unloading for a second day in a row of watching the Blues Friday morning. He says he leaves the Saturday show to everyone else and makes sure to get arrive early on the days he goes to avoid the crowds, lessons he’s learned as a longtime fan.
“We try to make it every year, we’ve been coming for at least 20 years,” he said.
6:45 a.m. | First spectators arrive before sun comes up
As the sun rose over Casino Beach on Friday morning, Blue Angel’s fans were already filing onto the sand and picking out spots to set up their beachside gear in anticipation of the opening acts of the Pensacola Beach Airshow.
Over 100 soon-to-be spectators had claimed spots by the water’s edge by 6:30 a.m. directly in front of Pensacola’s iconic beachball water tower.
The air already started to smell like sunscreen and salt as beachgoers readied their umbrellas and expectations to see the Blue Angel pilots take to the sky.
Barbara Pitts and Linda Dean, both of Meridian, Mississippi, sat on towels staring out at the Gulf’s breaking waves.
“We try to come every year,” Dean said about the airshow.
“We got here at probably 5:30 or 5:45 (a.m.),” Pitts said. “We wanted to watch the sunrise. Whenever we come, we like to get here early to watch the sunrise and look at the water. It’s our happy place. It’s just a bonus that they will be practicing here today.”
About 30 yards down the beach, Guy and Leslie Robinson, of Covington, Louisiana, were setting up a large tent in preparation for the day’s sun.
Guy Robinson said they had gotten to the beach early to ensure they would be able to get a prime viewing spot on the beach and a spot to park in the Casino Beach parking lots.
Leslies Robinson said that Friday would be their 26th time seeing the airshow.
“We love the Blue Angels, and we just love Pensacola,” Guy Robinson said.
Robinson grew up in Pensacola and still remembers seeing the Blue Angels perform aerial demonstrations as a boy on the beach.
“They still had F-4s at NAS when I was a kid,” he said
The Blues just keep Robinson coming back.
6:30 a.m. | Parking lots begin to fill
The Casino Beach parking lot was steadily filling up as of 6:30 am Friday morning, with plenty of space still available but beachgoers starting to unload wagons and fill up pool floats for a long day at the beach ahead.
Gulf Breeze resident Maggie Heidenreich has seen the Blue Angels flying over her home practicing for the last few days, getting the family excited to see them in Friday’s show.
“They’re just awesome, you just get the warm fuzzies when you see them come out,” she said.
Heidenreich and her husband got their two young kids right from bed into the car at 5 a.m. to beat traffic, and had a wagon full of chairs and toys to keep the kids entertained during a long day.
6 a.m. | Record crowd expected Friday
Friday's crowd at the Pensacola Beach Air Show is shaping up to be one for the record books. Even though it was just a practice day, the Thursday show drew a full beach and Santa Rosa Island Authority Executive Director Leigh Davis said the air show is already seeing record crowds and expects it to continue through the weekend.
Pensacola Beach Blue Angels Air Show 202:Schedule, flyover times, transportation and more
Officials point toward the two-year gap in a full show as one of the reasons for the projected crowds. The weekend's shows are expected to be the first full shows on Pensacola Beach since 2018. Tropical Storm Barry caused the Blue Angels to perform a shortened show in 2019 and the entire season in 2020 was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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