Blue Angel air show in Pensecola

You need to factor in the traffic when you are thinking of the drive.
Driving a long ways and trying to park and hang out at the public beach sounds like a nightmare

If you are bringing a one year old, bring some sound protection for the kid's ears. It's loud.

The Blue Angels will fly their show first on Thursday at 2:00 pm. On Friday, the entire air show including all civilian acts will “rehearse” starting at noon with the Blues at 2:00. On Saturday, the “real” Air Show starts again at noon and follows the same schedule.

The public beach and wharf area at Pensacola Beach is the “show central” area and the air show will run roughly a half mile to mile in either direction, but the closer you are to the middle the better the view.

The whole experience is fantastic, and we have spent several summer vacations that week at PB just to see the show. If you aren’t staying at PB already and are driving in, absolutely go on Friday. It will still be crowded but not as bad as Saturday. If you only want to see the Blue Angels, go Thursday for the 2:00 show and it will be even less crowded. Plan to get there early to get a parking spot and bring food and drinks for the day.

I imagine since it was cancelled last year it will be packed this year. We plan on staying in Perdido Key this time and riding in a boat each day to PB and watching from the boat on the bay side.

Blue Angels just made a surprise appearance here in Orange Beach today. Pretty cool to see that fly by.

We were on the island a few years back for the show. On Saturday, parking on the island will be full early morning, around 7:00 or 8:00 am when we were there. Its a cool show and everyone in the area wants to go see it on the beach.

We are going and staying in Pensacola. What time should we leave on Saturday in order to find a parking spot? Or is uber a better option from Pensacola to PB?

Traffic will be backed up not only on the bridge to Pensacola Beach from Gulf Breeze but all the way across the bridge between Pensacola and Gulf Breeze ... starting well before ten. The public lot at the main beach will be completely filled by 6 am and people will start parking along the roads.

If you’re going to do this, I think you need to plan for a long day and shoot to get there by 8 am and even that might be too late. It will be somewhat easier on Friday and you get the same show.

I just did some googling for you and came across the Pensacola Ferry that runs from Pensacola to Pensacola Beach and is running special ferries this Saturday. Www.Pensacolabaycruise.com. That might work if there are still tickets left. Otherwise, pack breakfast and lunch and plan to get there very very early if you want a spot.

Assuming covid hasn’t messed this up, the different military branches set up displays and fun things for kids to do in the public lot which makes for a nice time-killer while you wait.

Friday isn’t nearly as bad. Cross the bridge and park on the island by 9. It still gets busy.

Thank you for the info. I spoke with someone who lives there yesterday and they said the same thing about getting there by 6 am. I also looked in to the ferry. Only 4 tickets left that would get us there by showtime. We will play it by ear. Thanks again!