Sturgeon County’s skies will be a lot less exciting this summer as organizers have called off this year’s Villeneuve airshow.
Organizers announced the cancellation of the 2024 Alberta International Airshow on July 9. The non-profit event had originally been scheduled to be performed at Villeneuve Airport on Aug. 17-18.
Airshow organizer Richard Skermer attributed the cancellation to this year’s 100th anniversary of the Royal Canadian Air Force. Military airbases across Canada have been hosting airshows to celebrate — the July 20-21 Cold Lake Airshow being one example — and have pulled in basically every eye-catching military plane and performance team on the continent, leaving few acts for civilian airshows in western Canada.
Skermer said he and his team originally hoped to have the Royal Air Force’s Red Arrow team fly in this year’s airshow, but learned last November that the Arrows were already committed to airshows in eastern Canada. The Canadian Snowbirds were also busy. That left his team with a few F-18s and civilian acts, which weren’t enough to draw in the sponsors needed to fund the airshow.
Skermer said he and his team decided to cancel the airshow this week to give guests time to reschedule. The airshow’s career expo and associated conference were also cancelled.
“We can’t produce something families would enjoy,” Skermer said.
Skermer said there would be no refunds for the airshow’s cancellation as tickets for it never went on sale He planned to bring the airshow back in 2025.
Visit albertainternationalairshow.com for details.
