Spirit of St. Louis Air Show — Local services in Chesterfield

The airshow schedule of performers was excellent and they delivered! I have been going to airshows at Spirit since they began and missed only 1 or 2 and 2019 was in the top 2 as far as the Airshow.

Sadly it may be my last. In all the years never has organization, service and parking been worse. If it had been more humid on Saturday there could have been catastrophic health problems. Once we heard announcer mention dehydration and keep you water bottles full...however couldn't find the drinkable water areas. They said it was behind airshow center. Couldn't find it - no one knew where it was.Those should have had large signage. Even to pay ridiculous price for water was 1/2 to 45 minute wait in lines - that wait was for every concession stand...generally people thought it was horrible planning. Parking situation was ridiculous and the worst I've ever experience over the years by far...so badly planned and organized. If the show continues I won't pay for all that aggravation. There are many vantage points around the airport that allow for decent view that cost less or nothing without all the aggravation. I wouldn't be fair if I didn't also mention that it seemed they did have enough "johnny on the spots" as it didn't seem the restroom waits...

This was my first time visiting this show. From the beginning to the end, I was incredibly surprised with how well both the event and the Chesterfield Police handled the traffic and parking situations.

Showing up, the event staff smoothly guides you into a parking space, no need to search. Getting into the event is also smooth as they had many walk through points. There were plenty of merch tents, food tents, and demo tents. Plenty of space to sit. We were able to easily get as close as possible to the airfield. Leaving was also surprisingly smooth. They had every exit road managed and kept traffic flowing incredibly smoothly.

If I had to make one complaint, the lines for the food booths got pretty long. I'm not sure how long it took to get through them as I just was too lazy to stand there lol. The adult drink line was always nice and short though.

It was great. It is now out new yearly...

Parking staff was terrible. Parked and sat for 2 hours before being kicked out of the parking lot for not having a ticket even though it was sold out and half of the lot was still open. So money hungry that you can’t even sit at your car in the parking lot. Shouldn’t advertise free parking if you have to pay for a ticket to park either. Not only that but when leaving i asked another worker where we could park without a ticket and he pointed me to a different area of the lot so I went there and maybe 1 minute after parking was also kicked out of that lot. Then the lady in the golf cart says im lying about being there 2 hours already. Worst experience ive ever had at an event like this. Had to then go park at the mall across the street 2 hours after the show started so there were basically no spots...