by Glenn Tschimpke
Staff Writer
An estimated 100,000 spectators showed up Saturday and another 80,000 disregarded the rain and came out Sunday to the Jacksonville Sea and Sky Spectacular in Jacksonville Beach. By all accounts, festival organizers chalk it up as a success.
“It was great,” said Wendy Raymond Hacker, public relations specialist for the Office of Special Events for the City. “It went incredibly smoothly, almost surprisingly. People were incredibly patient about taking the shuttle and about the security checks and bringing and not bringing the right things. I really heard nothing but good things.”
The air show made its first foray to the coast after alternating between NAS Cecil Field and NAS Jacksonville for many years. The closure of NAS Cecil Field facilitated the move to Jacksonville Beach, with the possibility of alternately hosting the festival with NAS Jacksonville on a permanent basis.
“I was excited about the event and I also feared it,” said Jacksonville Beach city manager George Forbes. “Actually, it’s nice to be pleasantly surprised. The air show, as a whole, went better than my wildest expectations. Every square inch was jammed. Saturday was just unbelievable.”
To accommodate the tens of thousands of spectators, three park-and-ride lots were established along major entrances to the beaches: Atlantic Boulevard and San Pablo Road, Butler Boulevard and San Pablo Road and at TPC on State Road 210. Shuttles ran continually from the parking lots to the festival site. Although the shuttles were efficient, Forbes said in the future he would prefer to move the bus drop-off point from the west side of A1A across the street, which would ease traffic flow because riders wouldn’t have to cross the street.
“That’s about it,” he said referring to the main lessons learned. “Other than some minor details here and there, in the future I would try to get buses to cross to the east side of A1A.”
Although the beach is new territory to Hacker and the 12-member staff in the special events office in City Hall, she said planning the Sea and Sky Spectacular went relatively smoothly.
“We don’t do events at the beach,” she said. “We do events on a regular basis and there was really nothing different about it other than just the lay of the land and dealing with so many different agencies. The thing went well. I can’t think of anything we would necessarily do differently. The shuttles are something we don’t always deal with at every event. JTA was incredibly cooperative with that in helping us out. People seemed amenable to riding them.”
Shuttle use was lighter that expected. JTA deployed 175 buses on Saturday, which serviced an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 users. The transit authority scaled back to 105 buses on Sunday.
“Originally we were going to have more buses [on Sunday] but based on Saturday, there wasn’t a need,” said Marci Larson, spokesperson for JTA. “From an operational aspect, everything worked fine and there were no snafus of any kind.”
The nature of the entertainment and recent events prompted tightened security. Spectators could not bring large bags or camera cases, though typical beach gear like lawn chairs and towels and sunscreen were permitted.
“We had a security plan in place prior to Sept. 11,” said Hacker. “Obviously some things changed a little bit after Sept. 11, but not as much as you think. We changed some of the rules about what you could carry in and what you couldn’t carry in to be more in line with what the Jaguars are doing and other big venues in town.
You couldn’t bring anything bigger than an eight and a half by 11 piece of paper. Obviously everything is subject to search. People, I think, are just getting more used to that. It wasn’t a big shock. They’re comfortable with the fact that security is there and that’s what makes them comfortable to pack up their families and come to a large-scale event like that.”
“Security was more than adequate,” added Forbes. “Some people said we should cancel [the event]. If we cancel everything where there is a crowd, then we’d have to cancel all the football games and everything like that.”
Forbes would like to see the annual air show as a Jacksonville Beach fixture. Even though this year’s event was successful, there are no firm plans to slide the venue into a permanent rotation with NAS Jacksonville.
“You can’t have the Marines assault the beach at NAS,” said Forbes.