The Greatest Airshow That Never Happened

When SUN ’n FUN was forced to cancel its 2020 show because of the COVID-19 restrictions, it left PilotMall, the pilot shop on the SUN ’n FUN campus at Lakeland Linder International Airport in Florida, with a problem: It had already printed up 9,000 souvenir T-shirts for the big show.

“We had everything printed as we expected the show to go on,” says Neil Glazer, PilotMall’s president.

The good news is that “roughly half” of the shirts don’t have the 2020 date, so they can be sold at next year’s event.

The bad news: The other half do have the 2020 date on them. 

Not to be deterred, Neil came up with a plan: If you buy a 2020 T-shirt, for just $2 more you can add a cool sleeve design that declares: “The Greatest Airshow That Never Happened.”

The 2020 T-shirts, which are for sale at PilotMall.com and ShopFlySNF.org, are actually attracting quite a bit of interest, according to Glazer.

“There has been a decent demand for souvenirs,” he notes. “Diehard SUN ’n FUN supporters want something to commemorate the show and continue their support of SUN ’n FUN’s mission.”

SUN ’n FUN is the largest fundraiser for the Aerospace Center for Excellence at KLAL, which includes a high school, museum, flying club, airplane restoration center and much more. ACE’s mission is to “Engage, Educate, and Accelerate the Next Generation of Aerospace Professionals.”

A portion of the proceeds from the T-shirt and souvenir sales goes to ACE, according to Neil, as PilotMall is a SUN ’n FUN partner. There’s also a button at the top of the page that will allow you to make a donation to ACE, if you feel inclined.

There’s more than 25 different T-shirt designs available, including exclusive SUN ’n FUN designs. There’s also three T-shirts featuring Snoopy from Peanuts — something new this year — as well as shirts featuring the Thunderbirds, who were set to headline this year’s show.