Opening Day - 2019 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta!

This year’s Balloon Fiesta runs from Saturday, 10/5, through Sunday, 10/13 – nine days of balloon nirvana. What started as a promotion for a local radio station in 1972 with just 13 balloons launching from a shopping mall parking lot and 10,000 spectators has, ah, grown a bit. The number of balloons peaked in 2000, with 1,019 participating! Since then event organizers have restricted the number to 600, citing growth in the city and the loss of landing zones. Even so – 600 balloons at one event is utterly amazing!! The crowds have grown too, last year attendance was over 800,000 and they are hoping to hit a million this year. It can feel like a million folks on the field jockeying for position for that perfect picture or in front of you in line waiting for a coffee and breakfast burrito or, more importantly, the bathrooms. Lol.

Through the gate before dawn.

The Fiesta has also moved to its own venue. The launch field is 80 acres with fair-like tents surrounding the field. You can get your fill of deep-fried anything and enough balloon-themed souvenirs to break the bank. Yes, we’ve done our fair share of contributing to the local economy. Lol.

See, we bought our own balloon. Lol.

Events vary by day and everything is weather dependent – as we soon found out. There is a morning session each day (6am-noon) and an evening session (5pm-8pm) on five of the nine days. Although the chainsaw carving exhibition and some vendors are open throughout the day. It’s an odd system, you pay for each session separately ($10 at the gate), but they don’t clear the field so you can come in the morning and just stay all day. On the flip side, I was infuriated to find there are no in/out privileges. So even though our coach is parked a stone’s throw from the gate *technically* if I leave to give Riley a potty break, I have to pay another $10 to get back in. You can imagine how well that went down. When I politely voiced my displeasure with their policy, the guy at the information booth said if we talked to the gate security staff they might let us leave and come back. We did and they were very accommodating – but really, you shouldn’t have to rely on the kindness of strangers when there a dozen ways to fix the policy. Hand stamp anyone? RV day pass? Oh, and just FYI, I did not see their “policy” anywhere in their literature or website. Grrrrrrr.  Rant ended. Back to the awesomeness.

Dawn Patrol  goes up in the dark.

Opening day began at 6am with Dawn Patrol. Since we didn’t want to miss anything we were up and through the gates by 5:30am. Another thing we now know, the listed time on any balloon activity is when they let the balloonists start unpacking/filling – not when they start launching. So we had lots of time to wander the field and get a close up view of the action. And that is one of the wonderful things about this event – you are not restricted to the sidelines. You are welcome, encouraged even, to be right out on the launch field. You can chat with the crews when they’re not busy, take pictures to your heart’s content, and generally just be in the thick of things. Awesome!!!!

For Dawn Patrol, a group of more experienced balloonists go up before dawn in balloons especially equipped for flying in the dark. These intrepid pilots are the daily guinea pigs. 😊 Other balloonists watch the Dawn Patrol to get an early idea of wind speeds and directions at different altitudes.

Dawn Patrol in the air and balloons for morning glow inflating.

Next on the schedule is Morning Glow beginning at 6:30am. A number of balloons are inflated and lit. The glow events are held mornings and evenings and are fun to watch.

Morning Glow.

The main event scheduled for 7am, the one that the Balloon Fiesta is best known for, is the Mass Ascension. During mass ascension, hundreds of balloons launch in waves.  As we walked the launch field we chatted with crew and listened to them talking, they were all eager to fly. Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating. An early morning fog was rolling in, obscuring some of the earlier launching dawn patrol.

All fired up!

Inflating, and then...

...ready and waiting.

And still waiting.

More balloons continue to set up.

Folks waited, balloons inflated and ready, for the official go-ahead. For awhile it looked like things might clear off, but eventually the decision was made to hold the launch. Disappointing, but tomorrow they’ll get another try. It was interesting to watch the process of deflating and packing up. With so many balloons and spectators crammed onto the field it’s a scene of controlled chaos. Lol.

Early morning fog is not looking good.

A few of the early risers are up, but then they put a hold on the launch.

A little bit of blue sky, but not enough. :(

Up, down, or halfway in between - the balloons are BIG!

Down they come....

Now about the balloons – they come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and every color of the rainbow! Some are obviously corporate sponsored; others are privately owned and operated. We really like the “specials”, figural balloons in the shape of animals or objects. I’ll be showing you lots more in the next post, but we saw a few today. It’s hard to pick a favorite – besides, we haven’t seen them all yet! The balloonists sign up for different sessions, so you’ll see some of the same balloons at multiple events and others will be new. With hundreds out there, it’s impossible to see them all! For those interested, there is a Balloon Fiesta app (of course) that lists each balloon, the pilot, country of origin, etc. Folks come from all over the world to participate!

All shapes, sizes and colors!

Cheetah

Stagecoach.

Fractal patterns - we think these are some of the prettiest!

Jester in the middle. :)

We decided to hang out by the RV instead of attending the evening session. We weren’t sure of the timing of the fireworks show and felt it was better to err on the side of caution. We were also interested in seeing what kind of view we could get from the roof of our RV. As it turns out – a pretty good one! We watched the skydiving show and Evening Glow from our rooftop.

Skydivers put on two shows for the evening sessions.

Evening Glow from the roof of our RV.

Riley had his CBD treats and Thunderjacket on for the evening fireworks. I did mention that the downside of our RV lot is its proximity to the fireworks launching area, the mortars are set up maybe 100 yards from our RV. They do a pretty impressive show and you can feel the percussion in your chest when the big mortars go off. Thwump! Bang! Riley isn’t a huge fan. But he did fine and it only lasts about 15 minutes. Hopefully by the time we leave, he’ll be totally desensitized and we can take fireworks off the list of things to avoid. I can dream, can’t I?? In the meantime, no pictures since we were babysitting our boy. 

Tomorrow we’ll have another early start and another chance at mass ascension. We’ve scoped out a good vantage point and this time we’re bringing chairs and our coffee. Lol.