The U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels will headline Milwaukee’s WaterStone Bank Air & Water Show from July 18-20 at its staple lakefront location hosted by Milwaukee County Parks. Waterstone Bank will continue its long-standing sponsorship for the 2025 show, according to remarks from Paul Rogers, founder and president of the Milwaukee Air & Water Show, at a press conference Wednesday morning.
Six FA-18 jets will be featured in the show with jets 1-4 demonstrating group maneuvers and jets 5-6 demonstrating solo maneuvers. Narrator of the 2025 show and pilot of an FA-18 Super Hornet Major Scott “Goldie” Laux will fly in a day early in a seventh jet. An eighth C-130 Hercules jet donned “Fat Albert” will fly also as a logistics jet throughout the show. Between 60 and 80 personnel will accompany the Blue Angels event team for the duration of the weekend.
“(The show) is fantastic especially for a place like Milwaukee that doesn’t have a strong Navy and Marine Corps presence necessarily,” said Maj. Laux.
In addition to the Blue Angels, the 128th Air Refueling Wing will fly a Boeing KC-135 jet alongside several F-35 jets from the Madison area, according to Colonel Charles Merkel from the 128th Air Refueling Wing in Milwaukee.
The show usually draws about 150,000 people to Milwaukee’s lakefront over three days, including Friday’s practice day. The 2024 Air & Water Show shared an especially busy weekend in Milwaukee with Harley Homecoming and German Fest happening just down the road. Jerry Breske, owner of Brookfield-based Trinity Construction, said even with the chaos of the weekend, the 2024 show was still a success. Trinity is one of several companies hired to take down tents and clean up the lakefront area after the show.
The Blue Angels headlined the Milwaukee Air & Water show in 2017, 2022 and 2023. The most recent 2024 show was headlined by the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds.
