March 19, 2025
Provided Image/Visit Atlantic City
The Atlantic City airshow will take to the skies in July. The event was canceled last summer and had previously been called off for 2025 before Visit Atlantic City announced its return.
The Atlantic City airshow will be back this summer for the first time since 2023 despite a previous announcement that it would be canceled for the second year in a row.
Visit Atlantic City, the shore town's marketing arm, announced Wednesday that it has partnered with the Ohio-based Herb Gillen Airshows company to put on the Visit Atlantic City Soar & Shore Festival on Tuesday, July 15, and Wednesday, July 16. The free event will showcase military aircraft through flybys and performances that can be seen from the beach and boardwalk.
The 2024 airshow was abruptly canceled in July, about a month before it was scheduled to take place, due to funding issues and a major act withdrawing. The only other year the event was canceled since it launched in 2003 was in 2020 for the COVID pandemic.
In December, the Greater Atlantic City Chamber, which organized the event, said the airshow would be taking a "strategic pause" in 2025 to evaluate operations and ensure its "long-term viability."
Eric Scheffler, executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority — which funds Visit Atlantic City — told the Press of Atlantic City that there has been widespread agreement on the need to bring back the airshow, which he said costs about $380,000 to produce and will bring in an estimated $23 million economic impact to the town over two days. In 2023, the show attracted at least 485,000 spectators to the boardwalk and beach. In 2022, the show had a record-high attendance of more than 550,000.
Visit Atlantic City said it has "unified efforts" with the Greater Atlantic City Chamber to bring a "new and evolving concept" of the airshow. Participants and events will be announced in the coming months.
#VisitAC Partners with Herb Gillen Airshows to Host the Visit Atlantic City Soar & Shore Festival
— Visit Atlantic City (@Visit_AC) March 19, 2025
"Visit Atlantic City is actively reimagining events in an effort to continue bringing unique experiences to the iconic seaside destination."
Read more 🔗 https://t.co/QBdL9q7o5o pic.twitter.com/iws3e5Knms
"The Airshow is important for our casinos, businesses, and for our tourism and hospitality industry as a whole. ... Kudos to Visit Atlantic City, the CRDA, the Greater AC Chamber and everyone involved in bringing this event back to the Great City of Atlantic City this summer," Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small said in a release.
Wildwood may also debut its own airshow this year. The Greater Wildwoods Tourism Improvement and Development Authority said in February that it's exploring the possibility of hosting a "major airshow" in September and hopes that it would become a yearly event. The organization said it will share more details as its discussions with an airshow company progress.
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