The Best Places To Catch The Blue Angels Before The Summer Ends

If you’ve ever wanted to see fighter pilots performing at their superhuman best, then you should get to a Blue Angels air show. The Blue Angels are the US Navy’s elite demonstration team and operate a busy schedule across the U.S. Whether you’re lucky enough to have seen them before or you’re planning to catch them for the first time, making the effort to see one of their displays won’t leave you disappointed. 

A Blue Angels show is a breathtaking display of teamwork, skill, aerial choreography, and immense courage. The team flies the Navy’s frontline carrier-based fighter — the F/A-18 Super Hornet – and  they can be made combat-ready within 72 hours if needed, so you really are seeing the real deal in action. It’s a jet that’s also considered one of the best fighters ever made by Boeing. 

This summer, the Blue Angels will be performing across the USA, with shows like the Great State of Maine Air Show in Brunswick, the Pensacola Beach Air Show on Florida’s Gulf Coast, Seattle’s Boeing Seafair Air Show, and the Thunder Over Louisiana Air Show among the highlights of a busy schedule. So, if the thought of watching the Blue Angels performing such maneuvers as the Opposing Knife Edge, the Diamond Aileron Roll, and the Sneak Pass, here’s a handy guide to where you can watch the Blue Angels this summer. 

Among the highlights of July’s Blue Angels air shows is the Great State of Maine Air Show in Brunswick. This takes place on the 11th and 12 of July at the Brunswick Executive Airport, and the Blue Angels are scheduled to perform on both days. Tickets are available online only and can be purchased from the Great Maine Air Show website. 

Next is the Pensacola Air Show, which takes place on Saturday, July 18. This is the Blue Angels “home” show, so it’s got to be worth catching if you get the chance. There is no admission fee for this one, and the best views are from Casino Beach. You can find out more from the Visit Pensacola website. 

Moving on to August, the Boeing Seafair Air Show in Seattle runs from Friday, July 31, to Sunday, August 2. The event’s website lists the Blue Angels performing all three days at 3:30pm local time, with two practice runs on July 30th — though the latter are not set in stone. However, according to the Blue Angels website, the team is only performing on the Saturday and Sunday, so count on the weekend performances. Full details of the show can be found on the Boeing Seafair website. For fans of other military jets, you can also catch the F-35B, one of the most advanced fighter jets in the world here. 

Rounding off August highlights, we have the Thunder Over Louisiana Air Show, which takes place on Friday, August 28, to Sunday, August 30, 2026, at Chennault International Airport, Lake Charles, Louisiana. If you fancy saying goodbye to August in style, then you can buy tickets for this event online from the Thunder Over Louisiana website. 

As for some other performances this summer, the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska is hosting the appropriately named Arctic Thunder Open House on Saturday, August 8, and Sunday, August 9, 2026. You can also catch them at the Oregon International Air Show, which takes place at McMinnville Airport from Friday, August 14, to Sunday, August 16, 2026. 

September highlights have got to include the Cleveland National Air Show. This event takes place over Labor Day Weekend from Saturday, September 5, to Monday, September 7, 2026. and is a Labor Day weekend tradition in Cleveland. The shows take place at Burke Lakefront Airport in downtown Cleveland, and tickets can be purchased from the Cleveland National Air Show website. 

Finally, as fall approaches and the days shorten, you can still catch the Blue Angels one more time at the MCAS Miramar Air Show at the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, San Diego, California. Running from Friday, September 25, to Sunday, September 27, 2026, this one technically happens in the fall, but in sunny San Diego, you’ll still be feeling that summertime weather. Full details can be found on the Miramar Air Show website. Of course, this is not an exhaustive list, so you can catch the full slate of shows at the Blue Angels website.