Category Archives: sun and fun

SUN‘n FUN Home Edition 2020

SUN‘n FUN Fly-In Launches Home Edition 2020 with Video Link

For Immediate Release
April 27, 2020
Revised

Lakeland, Florida: The SUN’n FUN Home Edition 2020 launches today and will excite aviation enthusiasts across the globe by delivering the SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo in a new venue – Cyberspace. The SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo has faced its share of challenges over its 46-year history overcoming snow, a tornado, flooding rain, sequestration, and extreme heat. Now having to cancel its 2020 event due to coronavirus, the team at SUN ‘n FUN was not going to be deterred from their mission to Engage, Educate and Accelerate the next generation of aerospace professionals.

“We didn’t sit back and give up” said John “Lites” Leenhouts, President and CEO of the Aerospace Center for Excellence. “We got to work on alternative ways to bring the excitement and comaraderie that our SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo is known for to people around the world. Our partners, sponsors, exhibitors, and the whole airshow community are working alongside us which is why SUN ‘n FUN Home Edition 2020 will be a great experience”. Lites went on to say, “Our theme for this year was Experience Flight in 2020 and little did we know that it would be a virtual experience!”

SUN ‘n FUN hopes the concept will keep their audience engaged until the Fly-In can return in 2021. Proceeds from sales and donations will benefit SUN ‘n FUN’s Aerospace Center for Excellence. Without their annual event, this non-profit 501c3 organization has lost over 80% of its annual funding, placing many of its scholarships and award-winning STEM education programs on hold.

“The SUN ‘n FUN Home Edition 2020 is all the parts of the annual Aerospace Expo that attendees have come to know and love and a whole lot more”, says Greg Gibson, Chief Marketing Officer and Airshow Director. “The SUN ‘n FUN Home Edition is an overall experience that will be accessed via a web portal at FLYSnF.org right from our home page. Once you click into the Home Edition, you’ll have access to tons of online content including some things that you have never seen before!”

The SUN ‘n FUN Home Edition is more than just a website, it’s a whole new SUN ‘n FUN Experience, including a series of online interviews with performers and show attractions over the next several weeks, leading up to a four-hour live online airshow May 30th. The website has hundreds of hours of video, photo galleries, and an interactive virtual expo where patrons can visit exhibitors and even buy from a selection of online specials those exhibitors will be promoting on their websites linked from the virtual SUN ‘n FUN. There is even 2020 collectible SUN ‘n FUN merchandise from “The Greatest Airshow That Never Happened”. Every area of SUN ‘n FUN is represented, including Warbirds, Homebuilt, Aerobatic HQ, Vintage, and Paradise City.

Content for this new virtual experience has begun starting to roll out and is available on its website FLYSnF.org, and social channels including Facebook and Instagram. Micheal Goulian is the first scheduled guest to take part in a live online interview as part of Performer Profiles. Scheduled for May 1st at 6:00 pm EST, Michael will share how he became one of North America’s most decorated aerobatic pilots and recognized aviation professional.