A First Timers Guide to EAA AirVenture

We’ve recently wrapped up our first EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, WI, and I have to say it was everything we expected and more. We signed up for the event as a Christmas gift for our 17-year-old daughter, who had just gotten her PPL. What better event to attend to celebrate the occasion than the “World’s Greatest Aviation Celebration,” right?

As a first EAA experience and a true induction into the world of aviation, it was an impressive week-long event with anything and everything that you can imagine for aviation enthusiasts. It is so much more than “just an airshow.” Whether you enjoy looking at, building, flying, or otherwise interacting with and appreciating planes of all shapes and sizes, you are in the right place.

Also, be prepared to get spammed with airplane and airshow photos right now! You’ve been warned.

EAA AirVenture Overall

If you’ve never heard of the event, it’s a gathering of over 700,000 aviation enthusiasts (yes, 734,000 in 2026) and an assembly of the most amazing aviation museum (that is flying) on Earth! The variety of planes, from homemade and experimental to historic warbirds and modern wonders of aviation, is absolutely staggering.

In fact, over 10,000 planes flew into Wittman Airport in Oshkosh during the event, which creates quite a traffic jam in the air during the mass arrivals and exodus! Many of those planes stay there during the entire event. Or they may stay for a few days and then take off in the morning or between events. It’s definitely an interesting and somewhat chaotic moment when someone decides to take off between the two airshows, and you need people to collectively pay attention and help each other.

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For airplane enthusiasts, this really is a mecca of all things airplanes and flight. Whether you are starting as a pilot or A&P, are currently or formerly in aviation, or just appreciate these amazing machines in the sky, there is so much to see and experience at EAA AirVenture.

Planes, Planes & More Planes

A big part of why people attend the event is, of course, the air shows. And for good reason. The entire week of AirVenture, you can experience airshows during the day. The lineup changes daily, with each show lasting about four hours.

For photographers, some of the most spectacular moments are when the pilots and other airshow participants walk along the front line and when the planes roll by.

There are also airshows at dusk and into the darkness on Wednesday and Saturday nights, which offer an additional air spectacle including impressive aircraft, fireworks, drones, and major pyro!

You also don’t want to miss Boeing Plaza, where you will find a collection of military and commercial aircraft on display. The aircraft change daily, with some participating in the airshows and others appearing for a day or two after, letting weekly AirVenture attendees get a closer look.

Where To Stay

There are a lot of options if you’re planning to attend the EAA AirVenture event, and the length of your stay may impact where you might want to stay. Hotels, vacation rentals, RV parks, and anywhere else you can sleep or park get booked up for miles around, so we recommend you book as early as possible. Those lucky enough to have aircraft may choose to fly in and camp under the stars in a tent by their plane (on a first-come, first-served basis). How amazing does that sound (if the weather plays along)??

If you stay in an RV as we did, you will find an array of options, from no hookups to full hookups, many of which have a waiting list from last year if they’re close to the action. We stay about 30 minutes outside of Oshkosh in Fond du Lac at Breezy Hill Campground because we didn’t decide until about six months before the event that we wanted to attend. It was a very nice campground, and we’ll share more about it in a post. For 2027, we already started putting our name on the list shortly after the event ended.

Many people stay at Camp Scholler, the on-campus campground for EAA, with limited or no hookups. Folks start arriving on Sunday to this festival-style experience with RVs and tents of all shapes and sizes. An easy walk to all the EAA events, there are good reasons to go for these cramped camping conditions and paying someone to pump out your sewer tanks a few times.

Parking & Buses

If you’re not staying on the EAA grounds, parking will be a big part of your experience. We opted for a weeklong parking pass, which we purchased in advance online, which allows you to park at most of the EAA lots (Pink, Grey, Brown, and Purple). The cost is about $18/day in advance or you’ll pay $25-30 per day in person (sometimes cash only). The first day you use the pass, they give you a paper pass and you can use it as a fast pass at the parking lots the rest of the week.

We chose the Brown lot on the first day, which is practical for walking to the grounds or the EAA Museum but can fill up rather quickly. The other days, we opted for the Grey lot, which had lots of shuttle buses running to the main entrance gate. On Wednesday and Saturday, the volume of traffic definitely increases, and 3 of the 4 parking lots were completely full by 2 pm. Thankfully, they sent out a notification on the EAA app, which is actually a really great event app (more on that later).

The shuttle buses are really practical for getting into the event and save you about a 0.5-mile walk each way. They leave from the middle or side of the parking areas like the Grey lot and ferry you right to the front gate. On the way out, though, we didn’t even try to use them because the system gets super overwhelmed. We just walked our way back to the parking lot. Although the team does a nice job of keeping the buses running until everyone is home, there are so many people on foot that the buses can barely even move.

If you are adventurous, you can also go to the private vendor SOS Bros and buy a parking pass, which is a shorter walk. BUT the traffic is worse on the way out if you stay for the night shows.

Speaking of traffic, the evening traffic can be a bit of a bear, but typically once we were in our car, we were out of the parking lot within 10 minutes and on the highway. The EAA does a really good job with the local law enforcement to reassign lane directions and put up signs to assist with traffic flow. While they do change the traffic direction during the day, it’s

Be Prepared to Walk

This event space is HUGE! It is said that the entire grounds of EAA are 1,500 acres, and the display areas with expo, vendor, and aircraft are over 1,000,000. Seriously, wear comfortable shoes for this event because you are going to be covering some ground! I saw some folks wearing shoes that would make my feet cry if I wore them for 5-8 miles during the day, and it’s easy to walk that far! Also consider that you may be carrying stuff with you like chairs, food, or goodies you have collected/purchased at the expo.

On average, we walked 15,000-20,000 steps a day, and we usually arrived at 12 pm or later. Consider that you are walking 0.5+ miles from the parking lot, then another few miles once you’re on the AirVenture grounds to explore the expo halls, aircraft displays, and vendors. I wore my beloved Hoka running shoes most of the time and loved life. We did bring blister bandaids just in case, but thankfully never needed them.

Get Your Kids Involved

Workshops, demos, and more. There are so many options throughout the week to get your kids involved, from hands-on workshops to flying demos. In fact, EAA is building a new area on campus called Discovery Park to provide more interactive options for kids and teens that should be finished next year. Kids can complete activities to earn a Future Pilot or Future A&P pin, and the first 1,500 also get a free toolkit. Also, children ages 18 and under get free admission to AirVenture.
Air shows are plentiful and usually a hit for kids young and old.
Don’t forget to bring ear protection. The big fighter jets like F-22s can be LOUD, and while fingers in the ears work, if they’re holding a phone or camera to catch the action or grabbing a drink, fingers often tend to be occupied.
Boeing Plaza offers so many exciting opportunities to go inside huge planes and meet some of the best (and friendliest) pilots in the world who serve in the military and beyond.

Download the Event App

EAA AirVenture puts together a comprehensive app for eventgoers, with a full schedule of everything, maps, vendor info, food stands, and all the info you could possibly need at your fingertips. When more than 100,000 people gather together, phone connections can certainly slow down, so keep that in mind. But the app was really useful for planning our days and finding out what sort of interesting workshops were going on.

How much did we like it overall?

Well, on Wednesday while the event was still going on, we were already talking about booking our next EAA AirVenture trip for 2027. That’s a sure sign of a great vacation or event in our book!

Overall, it was an impressive and unforgettable event that got everyone really fired up about aviation. We were happy to contribute to the $257+ million economic boost to the local economy and shot 1,000s of photos that we will eventually need to edit. It’s also absolutely impressive what 6,000 hard-working volunteers can put together!