Wings Over Dalton Air Show cancelled

January 30, 2020

Collins Parker,

DALTON, Georgia (WDEF) – Air shows have drawn thousands of fans over the years in our region.

But lately, they have had a hard time getting off the ground.

The closest annual show in our area has been Wings Over North Georgia in Rome.

But the 2019 show was cancelled because of a failure to land a headline performer.

However, the Rome air show will return in October of 2020 with The Thunderbirds booked to perform.

In the meantime, the city of Dalton planned to kick off their own air show in May.

But on Thursday, the announced that JLC Air Show Management was cancelling the show because of slow ticket sales.

So far, they say they have only sold 158 tickets, but they need to sell a total of 11,000 to break even.

“After a careful and thorough review of historical trends in advance ticket sales for similar air shows, we have made the decision to withdraw participation from the Wings Over Dalton GA Air Show,” said JLC president John Cowman in a statement.

“Current sales and projections are significantly lower than what is needed to host a successful event. Given we are under 100 days until the scheduled dates for the air show, we believe it’s in the best interest of our team and other involved parties to cancel at this time.”

The City of Dalton has sunk $50,000 into the show as seed money.

They’ll get about $29,000 back after JLC subtracts promotional money they have already spent.

“We’re very disappointed that the promoter is pulling out of the show, it really could have been a positive for our airport and for our community. At the same time, we would not want to place City funds at any further risk of loss.”

“We will be reviewing JLC’s accounting of the show’s expenses to be sure that they check out,” said Dalton City Administrator Jason Parker.

Years ago, Chattanooga hosted its own air show at Lovell Field.

This year, the city launched its first ever Balloon Festival, but that show got a lot of complaints after bad weather kept them grounded.

Organizers say they will try again next year.