As the city prepares for the annual air shows, including the return of the Blue Angels, it’s dealing with the lingering impact of a recent logistical nightmare.

The aerobatic team performs in the sky over the Golden Gate Bridge during the Fleet Week Air Show on Oct. 11, 2025, in San Francisco.  (Zhu Ziyu/VCG via Getty Images)

Memories of the traffic meltdown and bathroom shortages that defined this year’s July 4 fireworks show on the Golden Gate Bridge loom over the planning for Fleet Week, one of San Francisco’s marquee events, which has historically drawn tens of thousands of people to the city.

Stephen Sherrill, a San Francisco supervisor who represents the Marina District, where the October airshow will take place, has raised concerns that city departments still lack an official crowd-size estimate, which typically comes from the San Francisco Fleet Week Association, the event’s sponsor.

“ Crowd size has been the flaw in planning over the past year, and when crowd size is mixed with a lack of time around preparation, we end up with negative outcomes,” Sherrill said, addressing reporters Thursday.

From left: Jackson Buttler, 4; Wyatt Buttler, 3; and Kai Super, 4, play with toy Blue Angel jets as a little girl looks on during the Fleet Week air show at the Marina Green in San Francisco. (Anne Wernikoff/KQED)

U.S. Navy Blue Angels perform an air show during San Francisco Fleet Week in 2019.

Stephen Dunphy, of Danville, California, waves the American flag at Battery East while a parade of ships passes by on the San Francisco Bay.

Lewis Loeven, executive director of the San Francisco Fleet Week Association, said he expected attendance to be similar to that of 2024 — an estimated 7,500 people at peak times — and that he would release the 2026 figures at “a later date.”

Peak crowd estimates for Fleet Week have varied dramatically in recent years, according to the city’s Department of Emergency Management. Fleet Week 2025 saw around 2,000 spectators at its peak, as the show was stymied by a government shutdown, preventing the participation of any U.S. military outfits, including the famed Blue Angels.

The U.S. Navy’s annual weeklong visit to San Francisco, which has brought boat tours and a chance to meet military sailors and pilots to the city for decades, is “extremely well run,” Sherrill emphasized, but he said he called Thursday’s hearing to make sure “excellent stays excellent.”