GOSHEN — Lured by the roar of jet engines and the “chop, chop, chop” of helicopter blades, thousands of spectators converged on the grounds of the Goshen Municipal Airport Saturday afternoon to attend the third annual America’s Freedom Fest air show and fireworks display.

Gregg Lanzen, president of America’s Freedom Fest, said an estimated 30,000 attendees gathered along the tarmac Saturday to witness the aerial show, tour an assortment of aircraft and visit vendors. The evening then wrapped with a fireworks display employing 16-inch shells, a production Lanzen said may be one of the largest in the Midwest.

“We have a lot of military aircraft coming in from World War II, from the Vietnam era with the Sky Soldiers and their helicopters, and later on this evening when the air show gets going, the United States Air Force F-22 Raptor will be doing a full 20-minute military combat demo,” Lanzen said of the show while taking a moment away from his organizational duties Saturday afternoon.

“There are only 187 F-22s flying in the world today, and for us to get one of those 187, that’s awesome. So it’s really a special thing. And of course, we’re a patriotic celebration. We’re celebrating our country today. So that’s our plan. All of these aircraft, everyone here today is here to help us celebrate. And it’s quite the celebration, I must say. We actually had our air show and fireworks ranked by Air Show Magazine as one of the top five small-city air shows and fireworks displays in America.”

JOINING FORCES

Lanzen said Goshen’s tradition of hosting a community Fourth of July celebration got its start back in 1989, when two area churches — First Baptist Church of Elkhart and First Baptist Church of Goshen — joined together to host a celebration of their own.

“We held it at Black Squirrel Golf Club because the owner of Black Squirrel at that time was a member of the Goshen church. So we held the event, sang a few patriotic songs, shot some fireworks, had about 800 people between the two churches show up, and we were happy with that,” Lanzen said.

“Well, the phone started ringing right after that with people showing interest. And long story short, over the next 25 years or so, the show, which we called Celebrate America, just continued to grow and grow and grow to where the last five years we did the event, we were running 25,000 every year, and it was just overloading the golf course, and parking and traffic was a nightmare.”

So four years ago, intent on finding a new, better location for the show, Lanzen contacted Goshen Airport Manager Randy Sharkey to see if he may be willing to allow the show to be located on the airport grounds.

“I was president of Celebrate America at the time, so I called Randy here at the airport and asked if there was any way I could move Celebrate America to the airport,” Lanzen said. “And to my surprise, he actually said he had been thinking about calling me and seeing if the airport’s air show, Goshen’s Freedom Fest, which had shut down in 2009 because of the economy, could be combined with Celebrate America. And I said, 'That would be awesome.' So we put the two together, and now here we are. So this is the third year we’ve done it together, and we’ve been running about 30,000 people or more per year. And I believe it. If you go up and down the line and see how packed it is during the air show, it’s not hard to believe.”

As a nonprofit, America’s Freedom Fest relies entirely on donations from the community to operate.

“And we need it because this year’s event is going to run about $250,000 to pull off,” Lanzen added of the cost of the annual show. “And the ticket prices don’t begin to cover all of that. So we really do rely heavily on donations. And I would love to see this continue well past my capability to lead it. I would love to see that. But of course, it will depend on the economy because the economy runs the industry, and the industry runs us. So as long as our economy stays strong, and as long as people are able to step up and helping support it, we plan to keep this going.”

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