Marine Corps leaders have decided this is not the year to host a Miramar Air Show, and Navy brass has called off related October events, setting the stage for a subdued Fleet Week.
But the cancellations won’t dampen the appreciation organizers and San Diegans usually give its military this time of year, said Joe Craver, one of Fleet Week’s organizers.
“Fleet Week is alive and well,” said Craver, who serves on the board for the event, and notes other events will run on schedule. Officially, Fleet Week runs Oct. 12-21, though some events precede or follow that period.
The Miramar Air Show had been set for Oct. 12-14. A Marine Corps spokesman said several factors related to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks led the service to rethink those plans.
“Having to cancel the 2001 air show is regrettable, but appropriate,” said Maj. Gen. William Bowdon, commander of Marine Corps Air Bases, Western Area. “This was not a hasty decision.”
Total attendance for the air show approaches 1 million people.
Also canceled was a foot race on the Miramar tarmac; an open house at the Naval Station San Diego; a parade of Navy ships on San Diego Bay; and a weekend of auto racing on the tarmac of North Island Naval Air Station.
Organizers of the Culligan Holiday Bowl are out $50,000 to $60,000 with the cancellation of the North Island event, the Chrysler-Jeep Classic Speed Festival, said Craver.
Craver, who is president of the 2001 Culligan Holiday Bowl, said his organization is fortunate the Navy canceled when it did , before Holiday Bowl organizers spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the auto race.
Fleet Week will still feature a concert and fireworks show from 4:30 to 8 p.m. Oct. 19 at Seaport Village. Other events are listed on the event Web site (www.fleetweeksandiego.org).
The cancellation of the air show affected organizations large and small.
SeaWorld San Diego was to have been one air show sponsor. Park spokesman Bob Tucker said SeaWorld decided to direct its energy , and the $4,000 that would have gone to air show sponsorship , into last weekend’s Fleet Week kickoff event at Gillespie Field in El Cajon.
The East County show wasn’t likely to get Miramar-sized crowds, Tucker acknowledged, but it promised to attract some of the people SeaWorld had been trying to reach with its marketing.
Tucker said SeaWorld will be part of next year’s Miramar air show.
San Juan Capistrano artist Paul Gavin, who produces an illustration, T-shirts and posters for the air show, said he invested “four solid weeks” on commemorative artwork for the 2001 Miramar air show. He had also printed 4,000 posters.
The good news was he hadn’t produced everything he intended.
The bad news, he said, is that he lost an opportunity to raise money for the base.
Gavin said he was also affected by the cancellation of an air show in San Francisco in early October.
With such graphic design work on hold, Gavin said he has changed his emphasis at work, and will get to some fine art commissions earlier than he thought he would.
