Government spending cuts known as sequestration have scuttled the 2013 Great State of Maine Air Show.
During their regular business meeting Wednesday, Midcoast Regional Redevelopment Authority’s Board of Directors voted unanimously to cancel this summer’s show, which was to feature an appearance by the U.S. Navy Blue Angels Aerobatics Demonstration Team.
But drastic governmental spending cuts, implemented in response to a congressional failure to adopt and pass a federal budget, prompted the Navy to cancel nearly all of the Blue Angels’ summer appearances.
Without the Navy jets — or any of the other static, ground-based military aircraft displays and required ground support crews — the show is not feasible, according to Steve Levesque, MRRA’s executive director.
“It saddens us,” Levesque said after the meeting, “but we just can’t make it happen without federal assets.”
Simply replacing the military with more civilian performers would cost show organizers more than they would recoup through ticket sales, Levesque said.
According to a statement released Wednesday by MRRA, “statistics from the International Council of Air Shows confirm the No. 1 ticket sales draw for an air show is the inclusion of a major jet demonstration team, such as the Blue Angels.”
“The air show runs so tight to the margin that without the draw of the military jet team, there’s no way we could make it pay for itself,” concurred Marty McMahon, aviation services director for Brunswick Executive Airport.
A memo issued earlier this month from the U.S. Department of Defense, calling for elimination of “all aerial demonstrations … in participation of civilian air shows,” effectively sank the Brunswick event — which frequently draws more than 25,000 attendees and raises tens of thousands of dollars for local nonprofits and charities.
Levesque said smaller events, such as general aviation fly-ins and race-the-runways events, will continue.
He added that planning would continue for future Great State of Maine Air Shows — the next of which likely would not be until 2015.
jtleonard@timesrecord.com
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