The Aero Experience: Cape Girardeau Regional Air Festival Makes Strong Return with Canadian Forces Snowbirds, Top Civilian Airshow Performers

By Carmelo Turdo

The Cape Girardeau Regional Air Festival is making a strong return to the Midwest region's airshow lineup for May 17-18 through the support of loyal sponsors and the commitment of the Canadian Forces Snowbirds Demonstration Team and top-tier civilian performers. The Cape Girardeau Regional Air Festival is a staple community event in southeast Missouri, providing a friendly environment for visitors from around the Midwest to experience aviation. The Aero Experience continues to support this great Midwest Aviation event and will be on-site to bring the highlights to our growing audience.

Bruce Loy (left) and Carmelo Turdo

Cape Girardeau Regional Airport, owned and operated by the City of Cape Girardeau, Missouri, provides a stable environment for the production of aviation events. Even so, the lack of military participation in 2013 made it more challenging to raise the additional funds necessary to host civilian performers and static displays. Overall, the organizers came close enough to their sponsor goals and made good deals with civilian performers in an environment where airshows across the region were being cancelled at a rapid rate. "We were very fortunate," noted Airport Manager Bruce Loy in an interview during the 2013 event. "We came close to our sponsor goals and we kept it relatively inexpensive...This community came together very well to assist us in promoting the show." Loy also noted that the 2013 Regional Air Festival was executed with the knowledge that the Canadian Forces Snowbirds were coming in 2014, and so it was a good way to get the organizers and volunteers back in practice following a purposeful layoff of airshows in the previous two years.

This year's airshow will feature an impressive lineup of both military and civilian performers, including the Canadian Forces Snowbirds, U.S. Army Golden Knights, The Aerostars, Younkin Airshows, Indy Boy's Extreme Jet Vehicles, Friends of Jenny, and other air and ground-based attractions. We encourage everyone to visit the Cape Girardeau Regional Air Festival May 17-18 to experience the fun and excitement of aviation entertainment. The following photo essay from The Aero Experience Team will illustrate some of the performers expected at this year's airshow:

Canadian Forces Snowbirds Demonstration Team