Locals line up to tour the inside of a U.S. Marine Corps CH-53 Super Stallion helicopter during the Flight Line Fair at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, on May 9, 2026. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
MARINE CORPS AIR STATION FUTENMA, Okinawa — Rainy season failed to dampen the spirits of thousands of Japanese and Americans who turned up for the annual Flight Line Fair at this air base over the weekend.
About 8,150 fairgoers braved wind and rain Saturday and Sunday for a first-hand look at the aircraft on display, feast on American goodies and rock out to live music, Maj. Pawel Puczko, spokesman for Marine Corps Installations Pacific, said by email Monday. American pop-rock band Third Eye Blind headlined the music performances on Saturday.
The fair was reinstated on the Futenma flightline after it was scaled down in October to just musical performers at Ocean Breeze on Camp Foster due to a federal government shutdown. It has been held at MCAS Futenma for approximately 20 years, Puczko said.
Guests examine the inside of a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft during the Flight Line Fair at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, on May 9, 2026. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
More than 30 aircraft and ground systems from the U.S. Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force and the Japanese Self-Defense Force were on static display throughout the weekend, air station commander Col. William Pacatte told reporters Saturday before the festival began.
“We’re hoping that opening the base will allow the local community to come aboard and to actually see what we do every single day aboard the installation,” he said.
Pacatte said the air station shares a strong relationship with the local community. The base contributes about $88 million annually to the local economy through contracts with local companies, rental payments to landowners and off-base spending by its personnel, he said.
A boy disembarks after touring the inside of a Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft during the Flight Line Fair at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, Okinawa, May 9, 2026. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
Festivalgoers tour the inside of a Marine Corps UH-1Y Venom helicopter during the Flight Line Fair at MCAS Futenma, Okinawa, May 9, 2026. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
MCAS Futenma has long been a focus of tension on Okinawa. The Marine Corps agreed in 1996 to return the airfield to Okinawa to help alleviate safety and noise concerns, but construction on a replacement facility at Camp Schwab in the island’s north has been slow.
Pacatte conducts routine meetings with Ginowan Mayor Atsushi Sakima “to support his special requests for quiet hours, for late night flying, especially on graduation days, on testing days, on Japanese holidays and the like,” he said.
A line formed Saturday to inspect an MV-22 Osprey, one of the more popular attractions.
Incidents involving the tiltrotor aircraft have made headlines over the years, including a crash offshore of Camp Schwab that injured two crewmembers on Dec. 13, 2016.
Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey pilots talk with festival attendees about the tiltrotor aircraft at the Flight Line Fair on MCAS Futenma, Okinawa, May 9, 2026. (Brian McElhiney/Stars and Stripes)
Boeing 737 pilot Mari Miyagi of Okinawa said she had mixed feelings about seeing the tiltrotor in person.
“I don’t have any reason,” she told Stars and Stripes. Her fellow 737 pilot Ken Kanetsuki interjected that Miyagi is from Okinawa, “so she has kind of a complex mind about it.”
However, Miyagi, who flies for Japan Airlines, said she enjoyed seeing fighter jets, including an Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon.
“I love the fighter jets – the shape, and so fast,” she said. “And I just want to see the pilots; they are so cool.”
Further down the flight line, Capt. Austin Sweeney spoke with attendees about piloting the AH-1Z Viper light attack helicopter with Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 369, based at Camp Pendleton, Calif.
“You see the protests occasionally and that’s fine, that’s going to happen,” he told Stars and Stripes. “But doing stuff like this just gives them the opportunity to see what we’re about, see that we’re not all bad and we’re here for a very good reason.”
AloJapan.com