Qualla: Thunder over the Boardwalk

Thunder over the Boardwalk: Introduction

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Most American airshows happen on weekends. Atlantic City's happens on a Wednesday. The choice was deliberate: the city wanted to bring people to the boardwalk on a slow weekday in August, and so since its first edition on August 27, 2003 - timed to the centennial of the Wright brothers' first flight at Kitty Hawk - Thunder Over the Boardwalk has been a midweek show. The result is one of the strangest civic spectacles in the country. Half a million to three-quarters of a million people drift onto the sand by mid-morning. The F-16 Vipers come in low over the casinos. The Golden Knights jump out of a C-130 above the Atlantic and drift down onto the beach with American flags streaming behind them. And in the background, the slot machines never stop ringing.

Thunder over the Boardwalk: A Beach Show

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The show center is marked on the sand directly in front of Boardwalk Hall at Florida Avenue. From there the audience looks east over the Atlantic - which means everyone is facing into the sun all morning and into the afternoon, a detail that has frustrated photographers for two d...

Thunder over the Boardwalk: The Headliners

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The USAF Thunderbirds have headlined more years than any other act, returning so often that they brought their annual reunion to Atlantic City in 2006. That year the United States Navy Blue Angels joined them for a rare joint appearance - the only year both demonstration teams ha...

Thunder over the Boardwalk: Two Cancellations

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

In its first twenty-one editions, Thunder Over the Boardwalk has been canceled twice. The first was 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down nearly every public gathering in the country. The second was 2024, and the reasons were more idiosyncratic. Funding wobbled in the spring...

Thunder over the Boardwalk: Civilians in the Air

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The civilian aerobatic performers carry the show as much as the military jets do. Kirby Chambliss, John Klatt, Sean Tucker, Rob Holland - World Unlimited Aerobatic Champion - have all flown Atlantic City. Jim Beasley Jr., a Philadelphia attorney by day and a stunt pilot by avocat...

Thunder over the Boardwalk: The Strange Geometry

Mon, 01 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Stand on the beach during a Thunder Over the Boardwalk afternoon and the geometry of the experience is hard to describe. Behind you, the boardwalk and the casino skyline: the Hard Rock's silver towers, the Ocean Casino Resort's glowing white pearl, Bally's solid wedge, the Tropic...