Air & Sea Show Returns to Fort Lauderdale Beach for 12th Year

The 12th annual McDonald's Air & Sea Show is back along Fort Lauderdale Beach this weekend, two days of military demonstrations along several miles of A1A that have, over the past decade, become one of the largest free public events in South Florida. The show runs Saturday and Sunday with flying programs scheduled to begin late Saturday morning and conclude with the Blue Angels' headline demonstration each afternoon.

The demonstration box sits just offshore between Las Olas and Sunrise boulevards, with the main spectator zone running on the sand and along the seawall north and south of the pier. Organizers have set up grandstand seating and corporate hospitality areas behind the dune line and have closed sections of A1A from Friday night through Sunday evening to make room for the crowd, the equipment and the lineup of static aircraft displays at War Memorial Auditorium.

This year's lineup again brings together the Navy's Blue Angels as the headline act with supporting demonstrations from the Air Force, the Army Golden Knights parachute team, the Coast Guard, and aircraft from the Florida National Guard. Search-and-rescue scenarios in the water, low-altitude tactical demonstrations, and a heritage flight pairing modern fighter aircraft with World War II-era warbirds are all built into the schedule.

The Fort Lauderdale Police Department, Broward Sheriff's Office and Florida Highway Patrol have published a familiar weekend traffic plan: closures along A1A, modified routing on Sunrise and Las Olas boulevards, and recommendations to use the parking decks west of Federal Highway and walk in. Tri-Rail and BCT bus service have added capacity for the weekend, and the city has urged out-of-area attendees to arrive early.

For central and west Broward families, the Air & Sea Show is the kind of weekend that doubles as a logistical exercise — sunscreen, water bottles, lawn chairs, an early start, and a known route home that does not involve A1A. For high school seniors moving toward graduation in less than a month, it is the last big countywide event on the spring calendar before finals, prom and the end-of-year ceremonies that follow.

Organizers expect the weekend total to land in the hundreds of thousands of attendees, in line with the show's recent years. The show is scheduled to fly rain or shine, with low-altitude maneuvers subject to ceiling and visibility limits.