Thunder And Lightning Over Arizona — Attraction in Tucson

I love the air show and the static displays and look forward to this event, but this year did not seem well thought out. We arrived and parked our car at 10:15am and then waited in a long line for 45+ minutes to get in, and were asked to show ID this year. We missed the opening ceremonies sadly. Our son and daughter in law came slightly later, waited in even longer lines to park, and then to get in, and ended up deciding to leave. We brought empty plastic bottles for water but there were only 2 smaller buffalo's with very long lines, to fill our bottles at, when previously there were larger buffalo's scattered throughout. Food and drink for purchase was very pricey with $12 for lemonade and $14 for a bratwurst on a bun, for example. I was glad we had brought PBJ's, apples, and snacks. Seemed like there were more bleachers this year, but we did bring our own folding chairs and small umbrellas. The air show itself seemed like there was less to it this year, with long gaps between displays. There was such a huge delay before the Thunderbird headliners that we ended up packing up and walking to our car, as we were concerned about long lines to exit the base. So, mixed review. Always love the aerial displays, but in our environment, there should have been more water available, and the lines to get in should have been...

This was terribly organized! They sure was changed to an adjacent AF base, but the carlines to enter were over a mile in length. I parked at an abandoned business just off base, in the McDonald's lot and hooded in....it took 40 minutes at a 2.5 mph pace (easy), but I was still a good 500 feet and 45 minutes from being allowed to enter the outer gates. Fortunately, there were a few shaded picnic benches available (for the bases' brownbaggers), and these were well utilized. Many people just gave up trying to get any closer to even the entry gates, and I was one. I sat in relative comfort and concession to this military screw up, and left within the hour. I haven't read any of the local reviews here in Tucson, but they're easy to anticipate: "A good time was had by all; we screwed up NOTHING and never have; just wait until next year and we'll have it perfected; there's a learning curve; nobody's perfect; EVERYTHING WAS PERFECT!!!; It's the military, the US military!! You think this is easy?; You think we're the Austrian Rail Service; no mistakes were made by any US military personnel; the mountain lions threw everything off; it didn't snow enough this year; Obama!; Everything was...

The show was amazing. However the score is low because the drive to the base and parking was absolutely awful. It too 1 1/2 hours to get inside the base, another 15 minutes to get parked. Then walking across the paring area required that you look down because there were deep unmarked holes that if someone stepped in would have really hurt and broken someone’s leg or more. Trying to get inside the gate was a NIGHTMARE. Another 2 hours of waiting in line THAT WAS UNMARKED only to finally hear one of the military personal come by yelling for us to move over because that entrance gate was for handicap and staff only! NOTHING WAS MARKED AND NO ONe (I REPEAT NO ONE) bothered for 2 hours to say a word to anyone about it being handicap and staff only. All it would have taken was correct labeling of the gates and proper personnel to direct people! The personal at the gates were also not very observant and did not do a lot of checking of bags and licenses in some of the gates. Not sure I would come back but rather watch the sky show form...