Where's the best place to watch the Chicago Air show?

August 6, 2008 12:08 PM

Where's the best place to watch the Chicago Air show?
posted by nitsuj to Travel & Transportation around Chicago, IL (5 answers total)

There are two good options - on top of a building or out on a boat on the lake. On the ground is not a good option. Personally, I'd go with the boat option to take advantage of the "And Water" part of the Air and Water Show.
posted by Rallon at 12:15 PM on August 6, 2008

Like Rallon said, if you can get to a highrise roofdeck or balcony, that's your best bet. On the ground, anywhere along North Ave Beach gives you a pretty decent location for events like the Golden Knights and the Harrier VTOL demonstrations. If you just want to see the planes flying around, anywhere near the lakefront on the Near North Side should be fine.
posted by mathis23 at 3:46 PM on August 6, 2008

The best day to watch the Chicago Air Show is the Friday practice day. You can sit near the announcers and hear what's going on, and not be elbow to elbow with 2 million other people. It's much less crowded on the beach. However, some planes don't fly on the practice day, for example, I haven't seen a B-2 fly by on a practice day. But everybody else does their full show.
posted by garlic at 6:38 PM on August 6, 2008

I just heard a radio ad about watching the show from the Hancock Building observation deck.
posted by Joleta at 9:50 PM on August 6, 2008

The best day to watch the Chicago Air Show is the Friday practice day.

This was definitely true in the past, but Friday is not a practice day any more, it's an actual show day. Crowds will probably still be less than on Sat and Sun, but it won't be the same as previous years when parking was easy and crowds were light.

No idea whether Thursday will be a practice day or not, but probably.

I stumbled upon this site which offers lake cruises to watch the show.
posted by johnvaljohn at 8:01 AM on August 7, 2008